Ridley Scott
Most people need the money all the time.
Sci-fi films are as dead as westerns.
What's interesting to me about Moses isn't the big stuff that everybody knows.
Actors are all different. They're not all volatile. Some are sweet, some are volatile, but what is fundamentally in there is something that has to be paid attention to, in that they are, I would say, needy.
I had a quite unconventional childhood, in the sense that I traveled a lot and I went to 10 or 11 schools. I was completely confused academically, but wherever I went, I could paint. I painted an inordinate amount.
When you're at a certain point in your time - age, that is, when you're older - you start to realize that, actually, what you leave behind you does count, and so you start to become fundamentally aware of your own destiny, which sounds very grand. It's not grand at all, actually.
I want a certificate that allows me to make as big a box office as possible.
The hardest single thing you do is get the bloody screenplay right.
Are we the first hominids? I really, really, really doubt it.
The story of 'Prometheus' is the idea that if you're given a gift from the gods, do not abuse it, and do not think you can compete.
If studios don't get their money back, we don't have any movies. So it is important that films are successful, and I am fully supportive of that because I'm not just a director, I'm also not stupid. I've been in this business long enough and, to a certain extent, I'm a businessman; I know the importance of that.
I unfortunately do suffer for my art.
A word on 'Kingdom of Heaven:' if you get the four-disc set, which is 3 hr. 8 min., you'll see why it's such a good movie. It was a real passion project, and it's the film I'm most proud of. I think it was treated incredibly unfairly.
I've got many letters from Muslim organizations thanking me for making 'Kingdom of Heaven.'
Audiences are smarter than ever; they know if filmmakers cheat an environment.
On 'Black Hawk Down,' I was employing 1,000 Muslims. 'Kingdom of Heaven,' same deal except bigger, probably 1,500 Muslims.
Sacred texts give no specific depiction of God, so for centuries, artists and filmmakers have had to choose their own visual depiction.
The very first film I ever saw was a pirate movie called 'The Black Swan' with Tyrone Power. And I thought that was great stuff. Of course, in those days, Technicolor was really Technicolor; there was no such thing as desaturation. Everybody looked super suntanned.
I was one of those kids who tended to stay in on Saturday nights. My mother used to come and say, 'Why don't you go to the dance with the boys?' And I'm going, 'No, I'm perfectly happy.' I think my parents thought I was definitely weird.
I love designing, and I still do it.
I'm really intrigued by those eternal questions of creation and belief and faith. I don't care who you are, it's what we all think about. It's in the back of all our minds.
It doesn't matter how much faith you have or don't have. I just don't buy the idea that we're alone. There's got to be some form of life out there.
The idea of flying in general does not appeal to me. I can barely understand why people want to fly at all, other than that it's occasionally necessary.
I don't get attached to anything. I'm like a good antique dealer. I'm prepared to sell my most valuable table.
I'm a yarn teller. My job is to engage you as much as I can and as often as I can.
'The Duellists' won Cannes, but Paramount didn't know how to release a film about two guys in bizarre breeches, waving swords around. I actually think it's a pretty good Western.
I'll reshoot a corridor 13 different ways, and you'll never recognise them.
I made the mistake of saying I was an atheist at one point, when I was doing 'Kingdom of Heaven.'
I'm a very practical person.
I watch a lot of 'National Geographic.'
'Alien' is a landmark. One of the really good science-fiction films.
I've gradually realised that what I do best is universes. And I shouldn't be afraid of that.
I think there's nothing worse than inertia. You can be inert and study your navel, and gradually fall off the chair. I think the key is to keep flying.
I think there are a lot of men who feel they're being emasculated by having the woman be in charge; I've never had that problem.
Oddly enough, I find it quite engaging to be working with a female when I'm directing. It's kind of interesting.
I had been very impressed with the voiceover of 'Apocalypse Now,' with Martin Sheen's voice. That was a great voiceover; it really internalized the Martin Sheen character, who was essentially fairly low key and didn't say a lot during the whole movie. But he thought a lot, so I always thought that was really great.
The people who really resurrected 'Blade Runner' was 'MTV.'
Scaring someone's the hardest thing to do, and that's why most of these scary movies are not scary. They're sick, but not scary. There's a lot of sickness out there, of people who then sit there and watch it, which I think is absolutely dismaying.
You could have ten scientists in this room. You could ask them all: 'Who's religious?' About three to four will put their hands up.
The Gulf of Mexico, they believe, is a huge asteroid. That was an impact zone, you know that? Yeah, for that big a thing to actually hit our globe, it would have had to adjusted the spin, the axis.
Try writing a book, dude. That's difficult.
The time it would take me to write a screenplay it would take me the time to make two films. I would rather make the movies, and I'm a better moviemaker than I would be writer.
Any period is fascinating: the more ancient, the better.
The digital and theatrical markets are two different marketplaces.
I don't make films for other people; I make films for me.
Once, I got slaughtered after 'Blade Runner' by Pauline Kael: three pages of slaughter. I was so offended, I would never read any more press.
The key thing is you can be the only person, your own critic.
Unfortunately, we don't seem to learn from history, do we? And you'd think we would.
I'm agnostic because I went through the usual process of parents insisting you go to church, and yet they didn't. So there's me, sitting in the chairs, thinking, 'Jeez, why am I here? I'd rather be playing tennis, seriously.'