Ang Lee Quotes
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My cultural roots are something illusive.
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Sometimes films ignore other points of view because it's simpler to tell the story that way, but the more genuine and sympathetic you are to different points of view and situations, the more real the story is.
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I'm aware of what's missing from my life.
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I think a lot of people do big movies not because they are talented artists but because they can function in the circumstances.
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When I see something I like, that's all that counts. What they use, how they get there, I never bother them.
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Making this movie as a period piece about a period that was very recent in people's minds. I was in Taiwan [during the 1970s], so I hope I did all right. Otherwise, it could be the biggest embarrassment of my life. Also, the story is not linear, it's patchy, like a cubist painting, and there is always the possibility it will not hold together, it will fall apart. The tone is part satire, part serious drama, part tragedy, all mixed together, and it has to hit an emotional core. That's also very scary.
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Everyone in the gay community doesn't think alike.
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If you try to act, you're going to look like you're acting. So don't act.
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When I started out, nobody gave me scripts, so I had to write...
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Depending on the budget [whether to use 3D on future movies]. I think I prefer 3D to 2D now. Also, because of 3D I have to use a digital camera, which is the way it's going anyway. That still confuses me, a digital camera versus film.
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Usually with this genre the first thing that happens is a good fight sequence to show that you're in good hands. So we broke that rule. I think a lot of that comes from the western audience.
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There's only one movie in my career I've had regrets with cutting it shorter, and I think some scenes maybe I shouldn't have cut.
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As artists, we like night more than day sometimes.
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It was nerve-wracking [to unleash 'Life of Pi' to the world]. The first show to the journalists, that was the first one, so I was very uptight. Then I felt okay about the reception because we did a press conference with good and friendly questions, although people looked serious. So really, after the show you went to - the premiere - that reception tells me I think the movie worked, so that was a relief. I started to feel deflated.
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My mother loves me and everything goes well. I have no conflict with her, so that's not dramatic.
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I think a movie is a media that is evoking feelings.
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Many times when you make a movie, it feels like your biggest mistake. But even if a film isn't a hit, you shouldn't view it as a mistake.
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I took the name Green Destiny from - well there is such a sword called Green Destiny. It is green because you keep twisting it, it's an ancient skill, you keep twisting it and knocking it and twisting it until it is very elastic and light.
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Emotions serve characters' purposes. That is their motivation.
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I see a movie as a way of learning about the world, about myself, and learning about my relationship with people and art.
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3D is quite a lot more advanced in animated movies; for live-action movies we're just taking baby steps, we're just in the beginning.
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You have to know the rules, otherwise you have no tools to communicate to the audience, but to keep it fresh you have to break some. I don't choose genres as the element, but the material itself is the element, then I'll decide what genre I need. That's just how I work.
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The fear factor actually brings the genuineness.
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I look at American movies, the big muscles, and try to apply that to Chinese film-making.