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If it was a choice between making movies and doing nothing, he'd probably still wish me to make movies, So he made me keep going.
Ang Lee -
There's a certain time in the core of making a movie from pre-production to halfway through post-production I don't read any project, my agent will tell people that "he's not reading." And then when I know how the movie's probably gonna work halfway into post-production, I'll come along.
Ang Lee
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Sexuality is a big issue, but there are others - how much you commit to a relationship, to social obligation, to honesty and being honest with yourself.
Ang Lee -
I grew up pretty much prevented from knowing anything from Communist China except that they were the bad guys that stole our country.
Ang Lee -
A movie is really provocation. It's not a message, it's not a statement.
Ang Lee -
Gradually I got tuned into the world - that happens on every movie. I did a women's movie, and I'm not a woman. I did a gay movie, and I'm not gay. I learned as I went along.
Ang Lee -
I think for most people, the audience probably couldn't tell the difference, but I know they [shots of visual effects] can be better. And the people working know they can be more precise. I'm still doing another round of sound mixing and color timing, pretty technical stuff. I think the movie [Life of Pi] is really presentable, nothing was left out that would take you out of the movie. I just need to perfect the job and I still have two weeks to go [to deliver final cut to Fox].
Ang Lee -
I feel like all of my characters now take this congested situation, they clash, and from there you purge yourself.
Ang Lee
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I think, if allowed, 3D is a new film language. I can have more adventure exploring a new media, that's very exciting. 2D we know most of it, things haven't changed for decades; it's the same principles, so 3D's more exciting.
Ang Lee -
I find it hard to deliver straightforward things.
Ang Lee -
The woman's perspective is like the dark side of the moon: it always exists, but it is never exposed, at least not in my culture.
Ang Lee -
My hometown was one of the major U.S. Air Force bases.
Ang Lee -
I don't have a checklist. Whatever material excites me, they'll call for a certain genre or combination of genres. It'll come naturally and I'll be eager to learn how that thing works. I learn the rules, and I'll probably break some of them.
Ang Lee -
Meanwhile, the Ice Storm was still in development, And that was something I really wanted to do, and frankly I don't think I was ready to do a big production like this.
Ang Lee
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Beautifully-acted and precisely observed, ILO ILO is an amazing debut, full of heart and intelligence.
Ang Lee -
The thing we call critics are not really reviewers, they are not really critics. They don't have the discipline to write what we would term as critique - it's really just reviewers. They have a common man kind of taste. If you watch them overall, they are not different from the box-office. That's my view.
Ang Lee -
So many times you see beautiful lovemaking scenes with a lot of exposure or an awkward lovemaking scene, but I think it's very rare that you see it private.
Ang Lee -
Only one time in my career I had that feeling [that this is not gonna get made], it was for this movie [Life of Pi]. It was right before we started the physical pre-production. I pre-visualized the whole ocean part before we made the movie, I was that prepared. At one point they seemed to want to drop it because it was really risky. The budget we proposed was a lot higher than they expected, they wanted to [drop it]. After all, it's a philosophical book and a literature property, it's not Batman.
Ang Lee -
I have two sons in America, and all they care about in Chinese culture is Jackie Chan and Jet Li.
Ang Lee -
When you talk about God, the first thing that comes along is not love, it's fear. You have to fear, and be in awe. You have to be scared. Any religion, it's like first thing.
Ang Lee
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Not taboo - it's just that straight actors still risk their careers commercially and economically. They have to please the crowd - they're movie stars; their image is their industry. It goes beyond acting.
Ang Lee -
My father's family were liquidated during the Cultural Revolution in China because they were landowners. He was the only one to escape. I was born and brought up in Taiwan. But you absorb the trauma. My parents had no sense of security.
Ang Lee -
It's the first movie I feel really proud of. But I know it's not a movie for everyone. Some people will embrace it, but some people will hate it, and I'm not really sure how to deal with that. In the past I've made movies that were pretty universally liked. You can't really hate them. You can discard them, but you can't really hate them.
Ang Lee -
In the past I've made movies that were pretty universally liked. You can't really hate them. You can discard them, but you can't really hate them.
Ang Lee