Vincente Minnelli Quotes

“Color can do anything that black-and-white can.”

— Vincente Minnelli

But I went down to Venezuela and spend a few weeks going through jungles. It's fantastic looking.

— Vincente Minnelli

“But surrealism is present in most of my pictures.”

— Vincente Minnelli

I always have coffee without sugar, you know. Just cream.

— Vincente Minnelli

“It's the story that counts.”

— Vincente Minnelli

“I use colors to bring fine points of story and character.”

— Vincente Minnelli

“The Pirate is surrealism and so, in a curious way, is Father of the Bride.”

— Vincente Minnelli

“Fortunately, John Houseman is a marvelous writer and he sat in on so many story conferences. He worked with Welles, you know, and he's a marvelous man.”

— Vincente Minnelli

“I always liked the Van Gogh story because I was terribly involved in that.”

— Vincente Minnelli

“West Side Story was terribly important because of the style of the dancing and the gangs of New York.”

— Vincente Minnelli

“Dali was the great painter then and surrealism was a way of life.”

— Vincente Minnelli

“Designing Woman was written for the screen.”

— Vincente Minnelli

I learn new things all the time.

— Vincente Minnelli

I've worked with an awful lot of people. Katy Hepburn, Spencer Tracy.

— Vincente Minnelli

“I allow an area for improvisation because the chemical things actors bring to stories make it not work.”

— Vincente Minnelli

“American films are terribly popular all over the world and American movie stars are terribly important. I don't know why.”

— Vincente Minnelli

“But I think musicals are going to have to deal with important subjects.”

— Vincente Minnelli

Cedric Gibbons was the grand cardinal of the art department.

— Vincente Minnelli

“I had given up the theater and everything propelled me into entertainment. And I didn't resist it.”

— Vincente Minnelli

“I made three films with Douglas, two with Charles Boyer.”

— Vincente Minnelli

I see wonderful films by Bertolucci, Visconti, and Fellini.

— Vincente Minnelli

“I seem to be drawn to things that actually happen.”

— Vincente Minnelli

“I started out to be a painter and was born into the theater.”

— Vincente Minnelli

“If anybody reads a story in a magazine or book, different pictures compete in their minds.”

— Vincente Minnelli

“In the Thirties, when I was in New York, I did the first surrealistic ballet in a show of mine.”

— Vincente Minnelli

“It's always the story that interests me.”

— Vincente Minnelli

“No, I only like whether I like the story or not, essentially see something in it that isn't completely there.”

— Vincente Minnelli

Nowadays the audience has changed. No one can anticipate the audience.

— Vincente Minnelli

“That's what I think musicals will come to. No backstage stories, nothing of that sort.”

— Vincente Minnelli

“We shot that in all the real places where Van Gogh worked.”

— Vincente Minnelli

I feel that a picture that stays with you is made up of a hundred or more hidden things. They're things that the audience is not conscious of, but that accumulate.

— Vincente Minnelli

“If you want to learn how to sing, listen to Ella Fitzgerald.”

— Vincente Minnelli

“Once you find the right idea, then go ahead and embellish it.”

— Vincente Minnelli

“The Long, Long Trailer (1954) actually happened and the man wrote a book about it. Father of the Bride, same thing; a banker wrote that who had never written anything else.”

— Vincente Minnelli