Top 52 Quotes & Sayings by Niki Caro

God knows nobody hated running more than me. Because I was writing and rewriting the script, I thought that I'm going to have to run because I'm going to have to know what it feels like to run.

Personally, I have nothing to prove. But I'm tremendously curious about human nature. Female life is so incredibly underexplored in cinema, so these stories feel very exotic.

I've had my best experience as a filmmaker with true stories about real people and real cultures.

It's interesting - the things you remember about Chariots of Fire is the slow running on the beach and the Vangelis music.

I have a commitment to real worlds on screen. I like working in real communities. I like telling real stories.

I do commit really, really passionately. It's why I only work every five years. It's exhausting.

You know, when you make something in live-action, you make it real. And when you are inspired by and determined to honor the original - the most original version of the 'Mulan' story - then you have to acknowledge that this is a story about a young woman who disguises herself as a man and goes to war.

The amazing thing about cross-country is that they don't run indoors - I could put them in extraordinary environments. And it's kind of uniquely cinematic in that way, to be able to commit to the screen some things that people don't get to see too often.

If you look at my body of work, which is not very big, really, it took an evolutionary leap with 'The Zookeeper's Wife'.

You can start making films as a child. It's become easier to find your groove as a filmmaker, and I'm extremely interested in those voices.

I take particular care in authenticity and specificity when working in cultures not my own. Every aspect of the filmmaking here was meticulously researched, and not just by me but across every department.

Fundamentally, the way I work is exactly the same whether I'm making 'Whale Rider' or 'Mulan'. And those two stories are somewhat similar. They have interesting parallels, and it felt like I'd really come full circle, back to a story of leadership.

Whale Rider' was a very authentic and specific movie about the indigenous culture from where I come. Amazingly, by the fact it was so authentic and so specific, it became really powerfully universal.

The Maori culture is different than our culture where we're most likely to introduce ourselves by email or fax and we conduct a lot of business in an impersonal way, whereas for Maori, the only way to do it is to make the pilgrimage and sit down face-to-face and have some tea.

I was always stealing 40-gallon drums off the road at night, bringing them back to the workshop and cutting them up with a gas axe because I loved to weld. I would make creatures out of these old metal drums.

The New Zealand culture and nature is such that we find it very difficult to celebrate creative achievement. In order to get New Zealanders' respect you have to dominate the world like Peter Jackson has done. He is absolutely revered.

As far as people getting into the industry and creative roles as writers and directors, I would say that technology is on your side, and you can tell their stories very easily.

When I was starting out I was way too scared to ask real directors how to do it or ask for advice, I'm really kind of New Zealand like that.

When I made 'Whale Rider' - of course, I'm not Maori and have no business, as a white girl, telling people how to be in this movie - I started by learning the language, as best I could.

Look what I know about directing; is it goes beyond gender. You might see some qualities that are inherently female in the great male directors.

Sense of place is really big for me - as a filmmaker and as an audience member, it's huge.

I think a lot of action films, and I'm just saying this as a moviegoer, the default setting on action films seems to be how could it be cooler?

With every film I've made, 'Whale Rider' included, I've had a vision that was far bigger than the budget allowed.

Here's the problem: women directors are not allowed to fail.

I'm very conscious of what I consider to be the first audience of any movie that I make. It's those people whose reactions I'm most attentive to. They're the ones who will tell me whether I've done my job or not.

There's so many movies, they're just like fast food you consume them and you can't even remember what you just ate. I don't want to make those kinds of movies. I want to make the slow food of movies.

It's a privilege to tell stories on film. It can be a great community to live a professional life. All of us that do this work should feel very grateful that we can.

I'm not at my house storyboarding, and telling them they need to move from A to B, 'Move here and then there.' Never, ever! I used to storyboard when I was much less experienced.

I don't see myself as a crusading feminist filmmaker. Not at all. I have the luxury of coming from New Zealand and I've had moments in my life where being female is considered to be a tremendous advantage - emotionally, career-wise.

The problem for me, with most movies for children, is that the filmmakers make the mistake of making it too simplistic. Where a child's world can be very complex, emotionally.

We know, from our mothers, our sisters, our daughters, our friends, that our strength comes - female strength - comes in all kinds of forms.

You know, what is so curious about being a director is that you never get on anybody else's set and see how they do things.

In all cases, I will always hire the best person for the job, and it just so happens that many of those are women.

A film like 'Whale Rider' is equally truthful, perhaps more so, to the Maori experience; Maori people respond to 'Whale Rider' because it's a world that they understand.

I try to cast actors willing to believe in the world of the movie, who can make an emotional investment in the world we are creating.

I blew up the mine in 'North Country'. It was about a kilometer long. I was so nervous that I'd do it wrong that I closed my eyes when I did it and I missed the shot completely.

We don't tend to break into song when we go to war.

You know when you work with animals you have to do so very carefully, species by species.

I believe that the debate of 'Who should tell indigenous stories?' is very important. It's something that should be talked about. I'm totally up for that and if my work can be part of that debate, I'm thrilled.

As a kid I was always barefoot, always outside and as an adult I always want to be outside.

I think about things like the ability to communicate a vision, strength to create an environment where the actors fell very safe and where they can maybe they can work without e protecting themselves they can really stretch. These qualities are neither male nor female.

I really value the skill and sensitivity of my collaborators, and I am really interested in - perhaps more so than if I was a male director - the hair, makeup and the textures of the fabric and the wallpaper.

I come from a place that is very politically sophisticated and progressive. New Zealand was the first place to give women the right to vote.

I'm primarily interested in examining human issues.

I made 'Whale Rider', I saw that to be specific and authentic is to be universal, and I've continued to work in an identical way ever since.

I never had a mentor. God, it would have been nice, but I just didn't. I look up to Jane Campion. And my most favorite director Lynne Ramsay.

I recognised that femininity and strength are not mutually exclusive, and I think that femininity has often been equated with weakness, but we know it's not.

Martial arts are inherently both incredibly impressive and incredibly beautiful. And that's my female nature, maybe, and my instinct, to make things beautiful.

I don't see myself as a crusading feminist filmmaker. Not at all. I have the luxury of coming from New Zealand and I've had moments in my life where being female is considered to be a tremendous advantage - emotionally, career-wise. Personally, I have nothing to prove. But I'm tremendously curious about human nature. Female life is so incredibly underexplored in cinema, so these stories feel very exotic.

People talk to me all the time about sexual harassment. This sort of behavior did not only happen in the past. And it's not in just the working class. It's in every industry. It's in the military. It's in politics.

I only work every five years. It's exhausting. I've got a family, and I want to be a really good parent, as well as a hopefully good filmmaker.

I never want to impose my will on a community because even though I am the director of the movie, I can't direct them to be any more like themselves than they are. So it's very helpful to me because I can see the truth of their lives and their world right in front of me.