Top 68 Quotes & Sayings by Kathryn Bigelow

I don't know if I thrive in normal life.

I think violence in a cinematic context can be, if handled in a certain way, very seductive.

It's totally thrilling to direct.

I realised that there's a more muscular approach to film-making that I found very inspiring.

It's irrelevant who or what directed a movie; the important thing is that you either respond to it or you don't.

Jordan is a very secular, Westernized country in some respects.

My dad used to draw these great cartoon figures. His dream was being a cartoonist, but he never achieved it, and it kind of broke my heart. I think part of my interest in art had to do with his yearning for something he could never have.

Whereas painting is a more rarefied art form, with a limited audience, I recognized film as this extraordinary social tool that could reach tremendous numbers of people.

I'm definitely not drawn to shooting on a stage, I'm just not.

I don't believe in censorship in any form.

Am I a 'woman of action'? I don't think of myself that way.

I thrive on production. It feels very much like a natural environment for me.

Character and emotionality don't always have to be relegated to quieter, more simple constructs.

Cinema has the capacity to be so physiological.

I began to exercise a lot of cinematic muscle with the precepts I had learned in the New York art world. Film was intriguing. I began to think of art as elitist; film was not.

I don't want to be made pacified or made comfortable. I like stuff that gets your adrenaline going.

I like to be strong.

My interest is to work in as uncompromised a way as possible.

I choose material instinctually - at the heart of it are characters that I feel are fresh and original, and allow for an opportunity to, I suppose, explore uncharted ground.

I really look for peak experiences and dramatic material that can allow peak experiences.

You only have so much money to shoot a movie with.

The journey for women, no matter what venue it is - politics, business, film - it's, it's a long journey.

I did a pilot for Anything But Love in 1988 that didn't sell.

I'm drawn to filmmaking that can transport me. Film can immerse you, put you there.

Something becomes personal when it deviates from the norm.

There should be more women directing; I think there's just not the awareness that it's really possible.

My movement from painting to film was a very conscious one.

The Communist regime didn't consider this to be a shining moment in history and assigned no heroism to it. They classified it as merely an accident.

If there's specific resistance to women making movies, I just choose to ignore that as an obstacle for two reasons: I can't change my gender, and I refuse to stop making movies.

I'm drawn to provocative characters that find themselves in extreme situations. And I think I'm drawn to that consistently.

There's really no difference between what I do and what a male filmmaker might do. I mean we all try to make our days, we all try to give the best performances we can, we try to make our budget, we try to make the best movie we possibly can.

For some individuals - some soldiers, some contractors - combat provides a kind of purpose and meaning beyond which all else potentially pales in comparison.

One should make morals judgements for oneself.

What's most galvanizing for me is the opportunity to be topical and relevant and entertaining. That's the holy grail.

I don't do what I do to try and break a glass ceiling.

There's a conventional reaction when you see a star: You anticipate he'll be a part of a particular denouement down the road, so you don't worry for that character.

I do have to say I have been very fortunate.

One of the elements in the film that really fascinated me was not to look at the world in bi-polar terms of us vs them or east vs west, which was a by-product of the Cold War.

I need to have my hands on the DNA of a film.

When he brought it to me four years ago, Rodney King had just arrived, I was involved in the clean-up of L.A. and I guess it was part of my experience.

I've always developed all my own pieces, and they're time-consumers.

I'm interested in social commentary.

Our film examines the heroism, courage and prowess of the Soviet submarine force in ways never seen before.

I like high impact movies.

I suppose I like to think of myself as a film-maker.

The urge to purge the material I come up with is, I guess, an ongoing process.

Right now, there's the illusion of order and civilization, but there's a tremendous amount of economic tension in this country and the educational system is constantly eroding.

Perhaps the only thing in my favor is that I am very tenacious. I don't take 'no' very well.

You never think the universe will reward your first choice - it just doesn't work like that.

When I made my first film, I didn't think of it as directing, so it wasn't like I set out to become a director.

On the other hand, I believe there's hope, because the breakdown and the repair are happening simultaneously.

You have to disengage at some point in order to be fresh.

I can't stand outside myself and be anybody else.

War's dirty little secret is that some men love it.

When James Cameron brought me the script, which I developed with both Cameron and Jay Cocks, I wanted to make it a thriller, an action film, but with a conscience, and I found that it had elements of social realism.

Films don't cause violence, people do. Violence defines our existence. To shield oneself is more dangerous than trying to reflect it.

I always want to make films. I think of it as a great opportunity to comment on the world in which we live. Perhaps just because I just came off "The Hurt Locker" (2008) and I'm thinking of the war and I think it's a deplorable situation. It's a great medium in which to speak about that. This is a war that cannot be won, why are we sending troops over there? Well, the only medium I have, the only opportunity I have, is to use film. There will always be issues I care about.

Those of us who work in the arts know that depiction is not endorsement. If it was, no artist would be able to paint inhumane practices, no author could write about them, and no filmmaker could delve into the thorny subjects of our time.

I have always firmly believed that every director should be judged solely by their work, and not by their work based on their gender. Hollywood is supposedly a community of forward thinking and progressive people yet this horrific situation for women directors persists. Gender discrimination stigmatizes our entire industry. Change is essential. Gender neutral hiring is essential.

If there's specific resistance to women making movies, I just choose to ignore that as an obstacle for two reasons: I can't change my gender, and I refuse to stop making movies. It's irrelevant who or what directed a movie, the important thing is that you either respond to it or you don't. There should be more women directing; I think there's just not the awareness that it's really possible. It is.