M. Night Shyamalan Quotes
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I love my stories being multi-layered, and coming at it from different angles, so that you don't understand the film's true emotional motivation until the very end.
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You're saying, "I'm gonna do this thing," and you have to be aware, as a rational human being, that you may not be allowed back in.
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I grew up watching Steven Spielberg and scary movies.
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When you say 'fear of the unknown', that is the definition of fear; fear is the unknown, fear is what you do not know, and it's genetically within us so that we feel safe. We feel scared of the woods because we're not familiar with it, and that keeps you safe.
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I don't want to pretend I'm any cooler or smarter than I am.
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'The Last Airbender' is genetically engineered for me. I love martial arts. I study it. The movie's based on a lot of Buddhist and Hindu philosophy. I was raised Hindu.
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I'm so consistent that my director's cuts are usually 20-25 minutes longer than the released version of the movies.
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So 'The Last Airbender' 's philosophy and culture feels like a beautiful idea to me: That we inherently have connections to the elements and what they teach us, and to each other.
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That's something we should be taught as kids: To be okay with ourselves.
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The combination of the CGI, 3-D, and sound effects, it's just impossible to separate them. It gives you a more immersive experience, and I prefer that.
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The first two movies I directed failed, when I was 21 and 23, and that was the greatest thing that could have happened.
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I'm a big believer in our connection to nature.
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I'm super confident about creative stuff, and I'm really not confident about human interactions stuff.
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Being insecure – I'm a master, a virtuoso – they can be handing me the keys to the kingdom and all I can think is, I hope I don't drop the key.
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If I'm hesitant at all about an idea, then that's not the right idea.
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'The Exorcist' is the scariest movie ever made. It just felt dead-on real, like you were watching the existence of the devil.
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See what you have to ask yourself is what kind of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs, sees miracles? Or do you believe that people just get lucky?
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I don't like to chase an audience. You can smell when someone is chasing an audience and it's not good.
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There are scenes that were right on the edge, but I always try to err on non-indulgence. It's something that I'm very careful about, that I'm just leaning too hard into something.
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My normal cycle for movies is eighteen months and each part is separate.
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I love 'The Killing', I love 'Homeland' and 'Mad Men', all those shows that lean into the tone of things.
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If ever I was feeling down I would go and write something. It's a form of escape.
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I had a desire to do TV and wanted to get in, in the right way, knowing that I was going to learn a lot, along the way.
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I think one of my favorite things about making low budget movies is that when you get into expensive moviemaking territory, it's almost impossible not to reverse engineer the movies. It's irresponsible not to think about the result and the financial result. But when you make low budget movies, you can put that out of your head.