Ang Lee Quotes
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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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You become the movie you are making.
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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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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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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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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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I hope people don't compare 2D and 3D because 3D's new, it's unfair to compare to 2D which is really sophisticated, even when we're jaded about it. 3D just began, give it a chance, let the equipment and projection system catch up and be better, let the price go down, let more filmmakers get a hold of it more easily.
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Sometimes, you have to get angry to get things done.
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I'm not a master of films. I'm rather a slave.
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Everyone in the gay community doesn't think alike.
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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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The fear factor actually brings the genuineness.
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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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I guess in Hollywood you chart your life by Oscars. You say to each other, "Remember when that movie won that year? It was 2006. Remember that?"
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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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I am not particularly religious. But I think we do face the question of where God is, why we are created and where does life go, why we exist. That sort of thing. And it is very hard to talk about it these days, because it cannot be proven. It is hard to discuss it rationally.
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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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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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I look at American movies, the big muscles, and try to apply that to Chinese film-making.
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I try to be a partygoer. But at some point I don't know why I'm doing it and fall back. I've been using repression, the struggle between behaving as a social animal. You're seeking to be honest with your free will, less conflict. I think that's an important subject with me. That's who I am, how I was brought up. I think I use that a lot. I mistrust everything I think. Things you think you can trust, believe in, or hang on to, changes. That's the essence of life.
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Emotions serve characters' purposes. That is their motivation.
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As artists, we like night more than day sometimes.
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No matter how widely spread out the films are, how different, you still are you.