Quotessence
Home / Authors / Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg Quotes

Film director

Filter quotes by topic

AllThinkingFilmStoriesPeopleIfsMadeDirectorsWayKidsWorldYearsKnowsWarLooksAudienceWantFeelsFirstsKindNeeds

Famous Steven Spielberg Quotes

“I make some movies for myself. I do that sometimes when the subject matter is very sensitive and very personal and I really can't imagine that I'm an audience member. I would lose myself too much if I thought of myself as the audience. There are other types of genre films that I need to be able to direct from the audience, to be right next to you watching the picture being made.”

IfsNeedsMadeSometimesMatterAbleFilmNextLosesAudienceToo MuchImagineSubjectsTypeMembersDirectGenreSensitiveImagine ThatSubject Matter
Author:Steven Spielberg
Create image

“I've got a lot of examples about moments where I thought something would work on film and it didn't work, but I never came to that decision with the film half shot, where I was stuck on a runaway train and couldn't jump off. On those occasions where I have admitted defeat, that this is not going to work, I haven't embarked on that project and made that movie.”

MadeMomentsFilmDecisionHalfHavensExampleProjectsShotsTrainDefeatStuckOccasionsGoing To WorkRunaway
Author:Steven Spielberg
Create image

“There's been more written about Lincoln than movies made about him or television portraying him. He's kind of a stranger to our industry, to this medium. You have to go back to the 1930s to find a movie that's just about Abraham Lincoln. I just found that my fascination with Lincoln, which started as a child, got to the point where after reading so much about him I thought there was a chance to tell a segment of his life to to moviegoers.”

KindChildrenMadeReadingFoundChanceWrittenTelevisionIndustryStrangerMediumsFascinationAbraham1930sPortraying
Author:Steven Spielberg
Create image

“The creative process is a very collaborative process. I know it might seem that way because so much ink is spilled and the media is obsessed with business and numbers and studios... but filmmakers don't think of it that way. We just go off and we tell our stories. It's the same torture that we adore, it's the same torture that our forefathers endured making movies in the golden era of Hollywood. So, from my perspective it's no different, I'm sure, from the men and women who I admire so much who made the earliest movies.”

ThinkingKnowsMenWayMadeDifferentStoriesSeemsMightProcessNumbersCreativeMediaHe ManPerspectiveMen And WomenHollywoodStudiosAdmireGoldenErasObsessedFilmmakerTortureCreative ProcessAdoreInkForefathers
Author:Steven Spielberg
Create image

“I've kept the people who've been in my career who I feel are my family. Kathy [Kennedy] had been with me since 1978. Janusz Kaminsky, my cinematographer, has made every movie with me since Schindler's List. Michael Kahn has cut every movie I've directed since 1976 when we made Close Encounters together. Rick Carter has done more than 15 of my directed films as a production designer.”

PeopleFeelsMadeDoneTogetherFilmCareersCuttingMy FamilyProductionsListsDesignerEncountersCarterCinematographersSchindlerSchindler's ListClose Encounters
Author:Steven Spielberg
Create image

“With all the movies I've made about history, it's not really fun because you're trying to get it right. You've got history telling how it was, and then my imagination is telling me how I wish it had been, but I can't go there, so I have to censor myself. I'm very good about stopping myself from creating history that never occurred, but it's frustrating.”

TryingMadeI CanFunWishImaginationCreatingVery GoodStoppingFrustratingMy Imagination
Author:Steven Spielberg
Create image

“I think every movie I've made after 'Indiana Jones,' I've tried to make every single movie as if it was made by a different director, because I'm very conscious of not wanting to impose a consistent style on subject matter that is not necessarily suited to that style. So I try to re-invent my own eye every time I tackle a new subject.”

IfsThinkingTryingMadeDifferentMatterEyeMy OwnSubjectsStyleDirectorsConsciousConsistentSubject MatterIndiana
Author:Steven Spielberg
Create image

“From a very young age, my parents taught me the most important lesson of my whole life: They taught me how to listen. They taught me how to listen to everybody before I made up my own mind. When you listen, you learn. You absorb like a sponge - and your life becomes so much better than when you are just trying to be listened to all the time.”

TryingMindMadeImportantWholeAgeYoungParentMy OwnTaughtLessonsWhole LifeYoung AgeSpongesImportant Lessons
Author:Steven Spielberg
Create image