Top 283 Quotes & Sayings by George Lucas

Before I became a film major, I was very heavily into social science, I had done a lot of sociology, anthropology, and I was playing in what I call social psychology, which is sort of an offshoot of anthropology/sociology - looking at a culture as a living organism, why it does what it does.

All art is dependent on technology because it's a human endeavour, so even when you're using charcoal on a wall or designed the proscenium arch, that's technology.

I thought Star Wars was too wacky for the general public.

If the boy and girl walk off into the sunset hand-in-hand in the last scene, it adds 10 million to the box office.

I'm one of those people who says, 'yes, cinema died when they invented sound.'

The technology keeps moving forward, which makes it easier for the artists to tell their stories and paint the pictures they want.

'Star Wars' is fun, its exciting, its inspirational, and people respond to that. It's what they want.

Storytelling is about two things; it's about character and plot.

I've never been that much of a money guy. I'm more of a film guy, and most of the money I've made is in defense of trying to keep creative control of my movies.

Part of the issue of achievement is to be able to set realistic goals, but that's one of the hardest things to do because you don't always know exactly where you're going, and you shouldn't.

A lot of people like to do certain things, but they're not that good at it. Keep going through the things that you like to do, until you find something that you actually seem to be extremely good at. It can be anything.

The secret is not to give up hope. It's very hard not to because if you're really doing something worthwhile I think you will be pushed to the brink of hopelessness before you come through the other side.

I've always been a follower of silent movies. I see film as a visual medium with a musical accompaniment, and dialogue is a raft that goes on with it.

I am a giant proponent of giant screens. But I accept the fact that most of my movies are going to be seen on phones.

I've come to the conclusion that mythology is really a form of archaeological psychology. Mythology gives you a sense of what a people believes, what they fear.

When I was making 'Star Wars,' I wasn't restrained by any kind of science. I simply said, 'I'm going to create a world that's fun and interesting, makes sense, and seems to have a reality to it.'

A film is sort of binary - it either works or it doesn't work. It has nothing to do with how good a job you do. If you bring it up to an adequate level where the audience goes with the movie, then it works, that is all.

Digital technology is the same revolution as adding sound to pictures and the same revolution as adding color to pictures. Nothing more and nothing less.

When you are a beginning film maker you are desperate to survive. The most important thing in the end is survival and being able to get to your next picture.

I started out in anthropology, so to me how society works, how people put themselves together and make things work, has always been a big interest.

I'm not much of a math and science guy. I spent most of my time in school daydreaming and managed to turn it into a living.

Even in high school I was very interested in history - why people do the things they do. As a kid I spent a lot of time trying to relate the past to the present.

The secret to film is that it's an illusion.

Working hard is very important. You're not going to get anywhere without working extremely hard.

Good luck has its storms.

The sound and music are 50% of the entertainment in a movie.

Whatever has happened in my quest for innovation has been part of my quest for immaculate reality.

None of the films I've done was designed for a mass audience, except for 'Indiana Jones.' Nobody in their right mind thought 'American Graffiti' or 'Star Wars' would work.

Learning to make films is very easy. Learning what to make films about is very hard.

If you really love films, and you really want to get the full impact, there's a huge difference between watching something on a small screen with a mediocre sound system and watching it on a giant screen in a giant theater with a huge beautiful sound system. I mean, the difference is electric.

A special effect is a tool, a means of telling a story. A special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing.

There should be a point to movies. Sure, you're giving people a diversion from the cold world for a bit, but at the same time, you pass on some facts and rules and maybe a little bit of wisdom.

To be renewed is everything. What more could one ask for than to have one's youth back again?

I was going to go to a four-year college and be an anthropologist or to an art school and be an illustrator when a friend convinced me to learn photography at the University of Southern California. Little did I know it was a school that taught you how to make movies! It had never occurred to me that I'd ever have any interest in filmmaking.

Digital technology allows us a much larger scope to tell stories that were pretty much the grounds of the literary media.

There wasn't much as a kid that inspired me in what I did as an adult, but I was always very interested in what motivates people, and in telling stories and building things.

It's hard work making movies. It's like being a doctor: you work long hours, very hard hours, and it's emotional, tense work. If you don't really love it, then it ain't worth it.

If you look at 'Blade Runner,' it's been cut sixteen ways from Sunday, and there are all kinds of different versions of it.

Football games are on TV, and it doesn't affect stadium attendance at all. It's the same with movies. People who really love movies and like to go out on a Saturday night will go to the movie theater.

'American Graffiti' was unpleasant because of the fact that there was no money, no time, and I was compromising myself to death.

The ideals and principles for which Dr King fought have never been forgotten and are as relevant today as they were 40 years ago.

Film is not an easy occupation. There's a lot of occupations that are difficult and film is one of them.

As a Western, 'The Magnificent Seven' was a pretty good film. I don't think it was as interesting or as multi-faceted as 'Seven Samurai.'

You can't do it unless you can imagine it.

The story being told in 'Star Wars' is a classic one. Every few hundred years, the story is retold because we have a tendency to do the same things over and over again. Power corrupts, and when you're in charge, you start doing things that you think are right, but they're actually not.

Everybody has talent, it's just a matter of moving around until you've discovered what it is.

There's no difference between movies and television. None at all. Except in a lot of cases, television's much better than movies.

A director makes 100 decisions an hour. Students ask me how you know how to make the right decision, and I say to them, 'If you don't know how to make the right decision, you're not a director.'

I was never interested in being powerful or famous. But once I got to film school and learned about movies, I just fell in love with it. I didn't care what kind of movies I made.

I am simply trying to struggle through life; trying to do God's bidding.

For 'Star Wars' I had to develop a whole new idea about special effects to give it the kind of kinetic energy I was looking for. I did it with motion-control photography.

The influence of 'Hidden Fortress' comes up a lot because it was printed in a book once. The truth is, the only thing I was inspired by was the fact that it's told from the point of view of two peasants, who get mixed up with a samurai and princess and a lot of very high-level people.

Everyone seems to think that digital technology devoids the medium of content, but that is not true at all. If anything, it broadens the content.

I was afraid that science-fiction buffs and everybody would say things like, 'You know, there's no sound in outer space.'

The secret to the movie business, or any business, is to get a good education in a subject besides film - whether it's history, psychology, economics, or architecture - so you have something to make a movie about. All the skill in the world isn't going to help you unless you have something to say.

You simply have to put one foot in front of the other and keep going. Put blinders on and plow right ahead.

I wanted to race cars. I didn't like school, and all I wanted to do was work on cars. But right before I graduated, I got into a really bad car accident, and I spent that summer in the hospital thinking about where I was heading. I decided to take education more seriously and go to a community college.

One thing about 'Star Wars' that I'm really proud of is that it expands the imagination. That's why I like the 'Star Wars' toys.

I live a reasonably simple life, off the beaten track.

Whenever you do something, people try to re-do it and do a better version, especially if they're in another country.