Top 100 Movie Quotes of All Time

A short, finished list rather than an endless feed: 100 of the best movie quotes ever written, picked out of the full movie archive on QuoteForever. You will find Shia Labeouf, Ang Lee, Quentin Tarantino and Francis Ford Coppola among them.

Read the list top to bottom, or use it as a starting point - every author name links to everything else they said, and every quote has its own page you can share or turn into an image.

1

Nobody will ever notice that. Filmmaking is not about the tiny details. It's about the big picture.

2

My movies were the kind they show in prisons and airplanes, because nobody can leave.

3

All television ever did was shrink the demand for ordinary movies. The demand for extraordinary movies increased. If any one thing is wrong with the movie industry today, it is the unrelenting effort to astonish.

4

The big-budget blockbuster is becoming one of the most dependable forms of filmmaking.

5

I haven't sold to the movies. In other words, I haven't gotten any enormous checks yet.

6

The public has lost the habit of movie-going because the cinema no longer possesses the charm, the hypnotic charisma, the authority it once commanded. The image it once held for us all — that of a dream we dreamt with our eyes open — has disappeared. Is it still possible that one thousand people might group together in the dark and experience the dream that a single individual has directed?

7

It's very much like filmmaking always is-you're always asked to do something that you're not sure you know how to do. So you make an educated guess as to what you think will work and you hope between that and plan B, that you can end up with a product that's really good.

8

A government institution called the Finnish Film Foundation funds filmmaking there, and I wrote several screenplays but never got any money. They were sent back to me, and they said that they were too commercial for them.

9

I was obsessed with romance. When I was in high school, I saw 'Doctor Zhivago' every day from the day it opened until the day it left the theater.

10

Woody makes a movie as if he were lighting 10,000 safety matches to illuminate a city. Each one is a little epiphany: topical, ethnic, or political.

11

Nobody makes movies like Oliver Stone.

12

Delay and indecision are first weapons in the armory of moviemakers.

13

Every movie is unknown.

14

I think a lot of people do big movies not because they are talented artists but because they can function in the circumstances.

15

The geniuses who conduct the motion-picture business killed glamour when they decided that what the public wanted was not dream stuff, from which movies used to be made, but realism.

16

Technicolor makes me look like death warmed over.

17

It's always tough for me to make a movie, and then sit on an airplane and watch somebody watch it on their phone.

18

We did this two-week boot camp before we filmed the movie. I got to know everybody in the group and we became friends. We got really tight throughout those two weeks.

19

I could be making a lot more money now if I had chosen a different kind of movie, but none of that matters to me... I've done the parts I wanted to do.

20

All you need for a movie is a gun and a girl.

21

People say it's a movie about boxing, but... I don't agree at all. I don't think it's a movie about boxing. Boxing is like a platform. It's just a stage where this is played out.

22

I'm a fan of good horror movies.

23

But having a really good understanding of history, literature, psychology, sciences - is very, very important to actually being able to make movies.

24

I like to direct movies, but I don't like to goof around for eight years talking about it.

25

The first rule of Fight Club is you don't talk about Fight Club.

26

And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my fingers upon thee!

27

A wide screen just makes a bad film twice as bad.

28

I spent two months in Fredericksburg, Texas, when I was 8, while my father shot a movie, and I loved it. I just embraced the whole cowboy culture. I got myself a pair of awesome boots and a cowboy hat.

29

Ever since the movie premiered at Cannes, I've had a sudden surge of scripts and interest.

30

My natural color is dark blond, but right now I like being a brunette. I did a movie last summer and they dyed my hair platinum - I hated it.

31

I want to entertain people, whether it be with a comedy, a drama or a movie. An idea's an idea.

32

My father being in the movie business, I thought being an actor would be great. But when I started singing to people in coffeehouses, you know, singing folk music and then, later, singing songs that I started to write myself, I felt more than an affinity for it.

33

I admire many actors, though I don't think there's anyone whose career I would want to mirror sort of by the beats. What I'm really looking to do is constantly defy expectations. I'm very curious to see if you can actually have a character actor and a movie star's career combined.

34

I always used to wonder why American actors were getting fat, then I made a U.S. movie. I'm seeing all the food every day, and there's lots of waiting around because making an American movie is very slow.

35

I started my career wanting to make a 'James Bond' movie, and I couldn't get hired! I made 'The Bourne Identity,' and ultimately the impact of that film was that it changed the 'James Bond' franchise.

36

Regarding 'Ferris Bueller,' I was in the Czech Republic once, in Prague, making a movie at the same time as Jeffrey Jones, who played the principal, who was making a different movie. The Super Bowl was going to be playing at this bar at midnight, so we decided we would go watch the Super Bowl at this bar at midnight in Prague together.

37

I believe that filmmaking - as, probably, is everything - is a game you should play with all your cards, and all your dice, and whatever else you've got. So, each time I make a movie, I give it everything I have. I think everyone should, and I think everyone should do everything they do that way.

38

My film is not a movie; it's not about Vietnam. It is Vietnam.

39

If you're a big Hollywood star, you make one movie a year at the most. I can make five in Europe.

40

Some movie stars wear their sunglasses even in church. They're afraid God might recognize them and ask for autographs.

41

Rather like Batman, I embody the themes of the movie which are the values of family, courage and compassion and a sense of right and wrong, good and bad and justice.

42

Eccentric behavior is not routinely noticed around a movie set.

43

I watch 'Batman & Robin' from time to time. It's the worst movie I ever made, so it's a good lesson in humility.

44

A good movie is three good scenes and no bad scenes.

45

'Love Aaj Kal' is not really a road movie, but it does involve some travel.

46

There's book smart, there is street smart, there's relationship smart, there's too many different kinds of smarts to know all of them. Everybody doesn't know every kind of smart. There's money smart, there's movie smart, there's computer smart. There's just too many different kinds of smarts for people to know all the smarts.

47

I can't speak American dog very well. There was a lot of improvisation with Uggie - like when I put the dog on the table or sometimes I follow him, sometimes he follows me. I had a lot of treats in my pocket. We worked with Omar Von Muller, the dog trainer. It was very easy because it was a big movie.

48

Sometimes I take the watch, or I take the shoes, but usually the souvenir is to take the life you had with those directors, or the crew - the camera person, the lighting person. When you finish a film it's like a little death. You had a family for a bit, and you finish the movie and you probably will never see each other again.

49

The Farrelly brothers make movies the way you imagine a movie set would be when you're a kid - fun all the time.

50

If you have a movie that doesn't strive to go to a certain emotional point, you can do anything and it will be fine and funny. But if you have something pretty emotional at its core, you have to make it right. You don't want it overwrought or unearned. Everything has to be moving towards this one thing.

51

My feeling is... when you show up to a movie set where there's, like, 50 people standing around and months of preparation gone into it, you want to be as prepared as possible, so you should make a million baguettes. That might not actually help in any explicit way, but it'll make you feel more prepared.

52

I played a bass player and a singer in a movie once, but I totally lip-synced to everything.

53

I was Renee Zellweger's fat doppelganger. If she ever played in a movie where she needed to be fat, apparently I could be her stunt double.

54

I'm vomiting days before I start shooting a new movie.

55

It's all false pressure; you put the heat on yourself, you get it from the networks and record companies and movie studios. You put more pressure on yourself to make everything that much harder.

56

This is real human drama, we're not creating some amusement park ride for the summer. Even though the movie is really exciting to watch, it's got a real pathos behind it.

57

Most of us live in a fog. It's like life is a movie we arrived to 20 minutes late. You know something important seems to be going on. But we can't figure out the story. We don't know what part we're supposed to play or what the plot is.

58

The first assistant director is just so important that the choice of that person is critical to the movie.

59

The thought processes that go through my head when I'm playing a game compared to the thought processes in real life are very, very different. And they're more interesting to me than what you think about when you're doing the dishes, cleaning the yard, watching TV, driving or watching a movie.

60

Even in the realest American cinema that I see, there's still not that sense that this is reality. There's still that sense that you are watching a movie. And hopefully, if we did get our jobs right, that sense disappears when you watch this movie.

61

What 'Scream' was great at was presenting ironic detachment and then making you actually care about the people that were having it, and juxtaposing it with their situation, all in the service of making a great horror movie. It was fresh.

62

When I'm in the movie, I'm entirely in the movie. When I'm on the set, I'm 200 per cent there; when I'm at home, I'm 200 per cent at home.

63

The sky is an infinite movie to me. I never get tired of looking at what's happening up there.

64

There are two phases to a movie. First you shoot the movie, and then you make the movie. Generally, post-production is longer than filming.

65

I love to pop up at the movie theaters. I love to treat the people who are there.

66

I've done movies that I've been advised not to do. 'Dog Soldiers,' the movie I did 11 years ago now, I remember my agent at the time was like, 'You shouldn't do that. It's a weird film about werewolves,' and it became a cult hit.

67

So, Hitchcock wouldn't say anything about my work in the movie but, on the other hand, he wouldn't complain, either.

68

I believe in my heart that 'Avatar' is going to be the revolutionary sci-fi movie for this generation, in this era.

69

As soon as people see my face on a movie screen, they knew two things: first, I'm not going to get the girl, and second, I'll get a cheap funeral before the picture is over.

70

You were up at 5 o'clock in the morning, and then you'd ride in a caravan, because we didn't have big movie trucks or trailers that is the hardware of a movie camp.

71

The truth is when you have a movie that was as successful as 'Chronicle' was, it's not as quick of a process. There are a lot more voices coming in and saying 'This is what the sequel should be' because there's a bigger expectation and a bigger fear of failure. And that's really what's going on with 'Chronicle 2.'

72

Being an actor on a movie set is like going to the playground at recess.

73

The thing about the movie 'Navy SEALs' is that it was just such a waste. The script could've been shaped to be much better, and you just hate to see all that talent and passion go to waste.

74

To be a movie star, you have to carry a movie. And to carry a movie where you play the title role is the supreme example.

75

Clothes are like a good meal, a good movie, great pieces of music.

76

Every movie I make I find kind of excruciating. I get a lot back from it, but I feel like I'm kind of always working at the edge of my ability. I guess that's what I'm looking for when I go to work. I am trying to become the edge.

77

I love making stuff. There's a joy in having the first molecule of an idea, then testing it in front of audiences at secret shows that people only know about the day before. I videotape those, study them, enjoy being in the character and figuring out the movie.

78

I stand by every movie that I did. I don't regret any decision I made.

79

Honestly, I'm not a big movie buff in general. The only movies I own is probably the 'Indiana Jones' trilogy.

80

I think that 'Elysium' the movie is unrealistic, with the space station and everything. I think 'Elysium' the metaphor is completely realistic: it's exactly where we're going.

81

The only reason why I tend to pass on a movie is either I don't think I'm right for the material and can't play it honestly, or because of time constraints with personal things in my life.

82

You make the movie through the cinematography - it sounds quite a simple idea, but it was like a huge revelation to me.

83

I want to go to Harry Potter Land! I actually should text Emma Watson to see if she can hook us up with a backstage pass or something. That's the perk of doing a movie with Emma called 'The Perks Of Being A Wallflower.'

84

I mean, there are things in the book you could never do in a movie.

85

Oh I love horror movies, yeah. I think my favorite movie growing up was 'The Omen.' I actually wanted to be that little kid.

86

I had the standard movie geek childhood, because for as long as I can remember, all I wanted to do was make movies.

87

I remember when I first came around, the computer-generated stuff was pretty wicked. I was like, 'Wow!' but I feel like then for the longest time, we saw so much of it, after a while, you might as well just be watching an animated movie.

88

A movie is painting, it's photography, it's literature - because you have to have the screenplay - it's music. Put a different soundtrack to a comedy and it's a tragedy. A movie combines all those forms and forces you to pay attention for two hours with a group of people.

89

Stanley Kramer? Spencer Tracy? No one turns down being in a movie with them.

90

I adore watching movies; movie marathons are my favorite pastime. I can watch up to five movies back to back. I also love music and like reading whenever I get the time.

91

It's very important that every movie I do makes money because I want the people that had the faith in me to get their money back.

92

The first movie I appeared in was Carry On Cowboy, though not as an actor. I was just riding horses.

93

My movie is born first in my head, dies on paper; is resuscitated by the living persons and real objects I use, which are killed on film but, placed in a certain order and projected on to a screen, come to life again like flowers in water.

94

Aristotle said time is a measure of change, and this movie is about changing in time, through time, while remaining the same person. That's a philosophical paradox and a moral dilemma. But 'Casablanca' says it's possible. You can have both. That's what it means. And that's my wish for you: that you would have both.

95

No good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough.

96

I'm a curious person. I pursue things based on what sparks my interest. I'm not thinking about what role I play. I don't have to be a movie director or this or that. I just want to be part of projects and places that are of interest to me.

97

I carry my own film guys with me now. People think that's a huge expense, but with technology like it is these days, it's not. You can film videos and everything with a Canon Mark II, and shoot a movie. They're doing it for next to nothing, by comparison. I can do ten videos for a project for the price of one mainstream video in the past.

98

I did not try to conform to anybody's ideal of what a Latin celebrity or movie star should be. I took a lot of hits for it.

99

To make a movie is very grueling at times. Long, long hours and cold weather.

100

I was in Woody Allen's Stardust Memories in 1980. It was only a bit part and I didn't get to speak but I felt that I was in a real movie and heading where I had always wanted to be.

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