Quotessence
Home / Authors / Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese Quotes

Film director

Filter quotes by topic

AllFilmWayThinkingPeopleKnowsIfsWantWorldYearsFilmmakerFirstsLooksMatterNeedsCinemaNew YorkStillsTryingWantedActors

Famous Martin Scorsese Quotes

“You have to remain strong. That's the kind of filmmaker I want to encourage. Orson Welles was the one who said, you know, you can learn anything you need to know about filmmaking- that's camera, sound, celluloid, video at this point- in four hours. It has nothing to do with anything. It has nothing to do with it... It has to do with what you want to say. If you feel you have something to say, you'll find that way to get it said, on film, and not let anyone or anything chip away at that or tarnish it, because it's something special and precious.”

IfsKnowsWayWantNeedsFeelsKindSaidFilmStrongSoundHoursFourSpecialCamerasWhat You WantVideoFilmmakerFilmmakingChipsSomething SpecialCelluloid
Author:Martin Scorsese
Create image

“And so you try your best. Sometimes you go in with one thing, with one desire and come out with something else. In the case of 'The Aviator' it was to create a Hollywood spectacle, but by about the second or third week of shooting you just want to literally survive it. Because don't forget, I also go through the editing process too, and when the film is released I have to talk about it. So, I take all of that very seriously.”

WantTryingSometimesFilmDesireProcessForgetCasesOne ThingWeekHollywoodThirdsShootingEditingAviatorTry Your Best
Author:Martin Scorsese
Create image

“I was rather shaken by all the green trees. I always am. It gets me. I don't want to be funny about it but I am. I loved seeing all the westerns, but I had asthma and couldn't go anywhere, but I loved watching them in Technicolor and seeing the cowboys and the landscapes of Monument Valley and you'd see the forests of the Anthony Mann films and think, 'wow, that's fantastic', but I could never go there!”

ThinkingWantFilmSeeingTreeGreenForestsFantasticLandscapeValleysWowCowboyMonumentAsthmaGreen Trees
Author:Martin Scorsese
Create image

“I've been extremely lucky to work with Elmer Bernstein, Howard Shore over the years, but I've always imagined films with my own scores, because I don't come from that world or that period of filmmaking. And so how could I make up my own score on a film like this where it isn't necessarily made up of popular music from the radio or the period; it isn't necessarily classical music. But what if it's modern symphonic music?”

IfsWorldYearsMadeFilmMy OwnModernPeriodsLuckyRadioScoreWhat IfShoreFilmmakingClassical MusicPopular Music
Author:Martin Scorsese
Create image

“Vertigo is probably my favourite Hitchcock film and probably one of my favourite films of all time. It's a film that I'm obsessed with. I saw it on its first release in vista vision, projected in vista-vision, at the Capitol Theatre in New York. That moment when the nun comes up in the end... it's just an extraordinary shot.”

FirstsEndsMomentsFilmVisionSawsNew YorkShotsExtraordinaryCome UpTheatreAll TimeReleaseObsessedThat MomentFavouriteNunCapitolHitchcockVistasVertigo
Author:Martin Scorsese
Create image

“[Kubrick] was unique in the sense that with each new film he redefined the medium and its possibilities. But he was more than just a technical innovator. Like all visionaries, he spoke the truth. And no matter how comfortable we think we are with the truth, it always comes as a profound shock when we're forced to meet it face-to-face.”

ThinkingMatterFilmFacesPossibilityComfortableUniqueProfoundMediumsShockSpokesFace To FaceVisionariesInnovators
Author:Martin Scorsese
Create image

“[David Lean's] images stay with me forever. But what makes them memorable isn't necessarily their beauty. That's just good photography. It's the emotion behind those images that's meant the most to me over the years. It's the way David Lean can put feeling on film. The way he shows a whole landscape of the spirit. For me, that's the real geography of David Lean country. And that's why, in a David Lean movie, there's no such thing as an empty landscape.”

WayYearsRealCountryWholeShowsFeelingsFilmSpiritEmotionBehindsForeverPhotographyEmptyLandscapeMemorableGeographyStay With MeGood PhotographyStay With Me Forever
Author:Martin Scorsese
Create image

“If Kubrick had lived to see the opening of his final film, he obviously would have been disappointed by the hostile reactions. But I'm sure that in the end he would have taken it with a grain of salt and moved on. That's the lot of all true visionaries, who don't see the use of working in the same vein as everyone else. Artists like Kubrick have minds expansive and dynamic enough to picture the world in motion, to comprehend not just where its been, but where it's going.”

IfsWorldMindHas BeensEndsEnoughUseFilmArtistTakenMovedFinalsReactionsOpeningDisappointedSaltGrainVeinsHostileVisionariesMoved OnGrain Of Salt
Author:Martin Scorsese
Create image

“Orson Welles was a force of nature, who just came in and wiped the slate clean. And Citizen Kane is the greatest risk-taking of all time in film. I don’t think anything had even seen anything quite like it. The photography was also unlike anything we’d seen. The odd coldness of the filmmaker towards the character reflects his own egomania and power, and yet a powerful empathy for all of them--it’s very interesting. It still holds up, and it’s still shocking. It takes storytelling and throws it up in the air.”

ThinkingStillsCharacterFilmForceInterestingPowerfulRiskAirCitizensPhotographyEmpathyCleanStorytellingAll TimeOddFilmmakerShockingVery InterestingRisk-takingSlateForces Of NatureColdnessUp In The AirCitizen KaneEgomania
Author:Martin Scorsese
Create image