William Friedkin Quotes

“Style is something that's extremely important, but it must grow naturally out of who and what you are and what the material calls for. It cannot be superimposed.”

— William Friedkin

The informing idea of what you want to say and do, that's what will take you from film school to professional - the idea. That's what is original to you.

— William Friedkin

“I tend to be attracted to characters who are up against a wall with very few alternatives. And the film then becomes an examination of how they cope with very few options. And that's, I guess, what interests me in terms of human behavior.”

— William Friedkin

“I really think that sex always looks kind of funny in a movie.”

— William Friedkin

Technique is of less interest than character and story.

— William Friedkin

The first work of the director is to set a mood so that the actor's work can take place, so that the actor can create. And in order to do that, you have to communicate, communicate with the actors. And direction is about communication on all levels.

— William Friedkin

“Ive never seen a more terrifying film than THE BABADOOK.It will scare the hell out of you as it did me.”

— William Friedkin

“Directing is a nice job. It's the best job for me. If i had to pay money to do it, I would do itIt's problematical. It's disapointing often. It's very challenging. It's frustrating as hell. It's extremely demanding and totally satisfying work. And if I wasn't doing this, I would have to do legitimate work for a living. There are guys out there really working for a living, cleaning streets or coal mining, teaching. Directing is playing. Acting.”

— William Friedkin

“One of my themes is that there is good and evil in everyone. I was not out to make these guys heroes. I really don't believe in heroes. The best of people have a dark side and it's a constant struggle for the better side to survive and to thrive.”

— William Friedkin

“When you go to a studio with something you want to make, or they come to you with something they want to make, more often than not, it's a tent pole. Not something one single person is really passionate about on a creative level.”

— William Friedkin

“Sam Jackson is a director's dream. Some actors hope to find their character during shooting. He knows his character before shooting. Sam's old-school. I just got out of his way. I never did more than two takes with Sam.-william friedkin”

— William Friedkin

Edgar Allan Poe is considered the great writer of horror stories, perhaps the greatest - I will say the greatest

— William Friedkin

“I believe it's true that there's good and evil in everyone and it's a constant struggle to have your better angels prevail.”

— William Friedkin

“And it was only a week later that I realized a close up of Steve McQueen was worth the greatest landscape you could find.”

— William Friedkin

“If you're a movie star, the studios don't want you to act. They just want you to show up and look good and chase girls and have a lot of laughs.”

— William Friedkin

The studios are making fewer films. They are making more expensive films. Profits are tougher to come by. Not only because of the expense of production. But also because of the expense of promotion and hype. To boil that all down, it's more about hype than it is about filmmaking.

— William Friedkin

All the great countries are at odds with one another over something, and yet if they don't cooperate they're going to blow up.

— William Friedkin

“I don't look back or analyze my films. I just make them. It's for someone else to look at.”

— William Friedkin

“The thing that interests me is the good and evil in everybody. I don't have conventional heroes in the films that I directed, because I believe there's good and evil in everybody.”

— William Friedkin

“You are always cheating for the audience.”

— William Friedkin

“There is a thin line between the policeman and the criminal. The best cops are always crossed. The best cops are the ones who are able to think like criminals. But for a quirk of fate, they might have been criminals.”

— William Friedkin

“All of the films I have made, that I have chosen to make, are all about the thin line between good and evil. And also the thin line that exists in each and every one of us. That's what my films are about.”

— William Friedkin

“With The Exorcist we said what we wanted to say. Neither one of us view it as a horror film. We view it as a film about the mysteries of faith. It's easier for people to call it a horror film. Or a great horror film. Or the greatest horror film ever made. Whenever I see that, I feel a great distance from it.”

— William Friedkin

“I have seen lampoons of my work. And I have really enjoyed them. But I would never do another version of The Exorcist.”

— William Friedkin

“I'm not a fan of Star Wars. That is not for me. That is for my nephews and nieces. I don't get it.”

— William Friedkin

“If you call yourself a non-believer, you're referring to disbelief in something, and you're acknowledging that there is something to believe in or not.”

— William Friedkin

I don't think sexuality defines a person. It's one small part of who you are, in my view. You are many things, and I never felt that people were defined by their sexuality solely.

— William Friedkin

“I can't sit through the superhero films. But I watched Draft Day, and it was kind of sweet in an old-fashioned way.”

— William Friedkin

“I believe today that there is no film and no shot in a film that is worth a squirrel getting a sprained ankle.”

— William Friedkin

“Star Wars gave birth to all the computer-generated superhero films.”

— William Friedkin

“If Star Wars had failed, you wouldn't have 90 percent of what's out there today.”

— William Friedkin

“Even with some of the best action films like The Bourne Ultimatum, which is a great action film with a great chase sequence, so much of it is computer-generated. But that doesn't bother me. I think it works. It's fantastic.”

— William Friedkin

“Sure, you could go out and make Jaws today. But all of the sequels to Jaws weren't good. They are all worthless. The Godfather II is the only sequel that I have ever seen that is as good as or better than the original.”

— William Friedkin

The Blu-ray is the real cinematech of world cinema. That's how it's being preserved. All of these guys that are trying to preserve 35mm negatives? They are wasting their time. There are better ways to see and project this stuff. It's called digital.

— William Friedkin

I had absolutely no focus as a kid. I never paid attention at school, I never went to college. Not because we were too poor; we were. But if I wanted to go to college, I would have found a way.

— William Friedkin

“I don't like 3D. I don't believe there is any film that I have seen and loved that would have been improved by a scintilla in 3D. To me, it's just a gimmick.”

— William Friedkin

“To me, the art of cinema is the same as the art of painting. The artist takes a 2D medium and gives you the illusion of depth. If you look at any of the great paintings, you have the illusion of depth. Which is part of the art. The same with the great movies.”

— William Friedkin

I don't believe that Citizen Kane or Gone With the Wind, or any damn picture that you can name, would be better off in 3D. I think it's a gimmick. I find 3D distracting.

— William Friedkin

You don't need great actors to do a 3D picture. All of this condescending stuff that they put out? "Oh, we will always need actors." Bullshit! They are able to take anybody and put some markers on them, and have them walk through an empty room. Then they paint in the background.

— William Friedkin

“The art of movies is to allow the audience to suspend their disbelief. They need to use their imaginations.”

— William Friedkin

None of the chase scenes that I did had any opticals. We had to do all of that physically. The first thing you have to do is see it in your mind's eye. You have to envision it. Imagine someone knitting a sweater or a scarf. They either have a pattern in front of them, or they see a pattern in their mind's eye. Then it's one stitch at a time. That's what shooting a chase is like.

— William Friedkin

“I have to see the whole scene in my head before I go out and do it. Which I do. I will envision the entire scene before I shoot it.”

— William Friedkin

“You don't leave the film alone. You have a new audience, and you have a new medium. Why would you leave it alone? Film is not an antique. It's not a relic. It's not a Leonardo da Vinci. I don't want someone painting over a da Vinci or Rembrandt. But these movies aren't that.”

— William Friedkin

“There are films that I've made that I like a little bit more than the others. But the films that I mostly watch, and see over and over again, are not my own.”

— William Friedkin

“With all of my films that are on DVD and Blu-ray, I have spent weeks with them in a color timing room. Just changing or enhancing them. I have been desaturating the color. Sometimes I will make a scene bluer or redder. I do use the new medium. I believe in it.”

— William Friedkin

“When you make a Blu-ray, its not the same as the print process was. You have little or no control over any print that was ever made. You are a victim of the 35mm printing process.”

— William Friedkin

“I have control over every single frame on Blu-ray. If I want a scene bluer, I get that scene bluer. Originally, there was some fluctuation with the prints. If you made a thousand, or a few thousand prints, there is no control over any of that. But now I can make a master using the digital process.”

— William Friedkin

The digital process gives me total control over how I want the film to look. The films look like they did when I was first looking through the viewfinder.

— William Friedkin

“We all wind up the same way, no matter what our goals or ambitions are. We have nothing at all to say about how we got into this world or how are going to leave it.”

— William Friedkin

“Every time you run a 35mm print, it picks up scratches. It picks up dirt. Sometimes it breaks, and you have to re-splice it. You lose frames. This doesn't happen with digital or Blu-ray. I think that's great. Because I love the new media.”

— William Friedkin