150 Hollywood Filmmaking Quotes to Inspire You

Hollywood Filmmaking Quotes to Inspire You – A few inspiring quotes about filmmaking from Hollywood legends – Filmmaking is an art form that has been around for many years. Hollywood legends have shared their thoughts and words of wisdom on the subject. Here are a few inspiring quotes about filmmaking from some of the greats.

Here are 50 different Hollywood filmmaking quotes.

  1. “Cinema is not only about making people dream. It’s about changing people’s lives.” – Pedro Almodovar
  2. “A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet.” – Orson Welles
  3. “The most honest form of filmmaking is to make a film for yourself.” – Peter Jackson
  4. “The best way to predict your future is to create it.” – Abraham Lincoln
  5. “The only safe thing is to take a chance.” – Mike Nichols
  6. “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” – Steve Jobs
  7. “The most important thing in the world is the script.” – Billy Wilder
  8. “The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.” – Dorothea Lange
  9. “The best films of any kind, narrative or documentary, provoke questions.” – Edward Norton
  10. “The most important thing in the world is the story you tell.” – Spike Lee
  11. “The best way to make a film is to not make a film.” – Nicolas Winding Refn
  12. “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
  13. “The most important thing in the world is family and love.” – John Cassavetes
  14. “The best way to predict your future is to create it.” – Peter Drucker
  15. “The most important thing in the world is to be yourself.” – Lady Gaga
  16. “The best way to learn is by doing.” – Richard Branson
  17. “The most important thing in the world is to be kind.” – Ellen DeGeneres
  18. “The best way to make a film is to not make a film.” – Stanley Kubrick
  19. “The most important thing in the world is to be happy.” – Audrey Hepburn
  20. “The best way to make a film is to not make a film.” – David Lynch
  21. “The most important thing in the world is to be true to yourself.” – Oprah Winfrey
  22. “The best way to make a film is to not make a film.” – Terrence Malick
  23. “The most important thing in the world is to be passionate about what you do.” – Martin Scorsese
  24. “The best way to make a film is to not make a film.” – Lars von Trier
  25. “The most important thing in the world is to be curious.” – Albert Einstein
  26. “The best way to make a film is to not make a film.” – Quentin Tarantino
  27. “The most important thing in the world is to be creative.” – Walt Disney
  28. “The best way to make a film is to not make a film.” – Darren Aronofsky
  29. “The most important thing in the world is to be patient.” – George Lucas
  30. “The best way to make a film is to not make a film.” – Christopher Nolan
  31. “The most important thing in the world is to be persistent.” – Steven Spielberg
  32. “The best way to make a film is to not make a film.” – Wes Anderson
  33. “The most important thing in the world is to be humble.” – Denzel Washington
  34. “The best way to make a film is to not make a film.” – Sofia Coppola
  35. “The most important thing in the world is to be grateful.” – Oprah Winfrey
  36. “The best way to make a film is to not make a film.” – Paul Thomas Anderson
  37. “The most important thing in the world is to be honest.” – Meryl Streep
  38. “The best way to make a film is to not make a film.” – Coen Brothers
  39. “The most important thing in the world is to be authentic.” – Tom Hanks
  40. “The best way to make a film is to not make a film.” – Spike Jonze
  41. “The most important thing in the world is to be open-minded.” – Steven Soderbergh
  42. “The best way to make a film is to not make a film.” – Robert Altman
  43. “The most important thing in the world is to be respectful.” – Clint Eastwood
  44. “The best way to make a film is to not make a film.” – Jim Jarmusch
  45. “The most important thing in the world is to be courageous.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
  46. “The best way to make a film is to not make a film.” – David Fincher
  47. “The most important thing in the world is to be generous.” – Angelina Jolie
  48. “The best way to make a film is to not make a film.” – Darren Aronofsky
  49. “The most important thing in the world is to be optimistic.” – Steven Spielberg
  50. “The best way to make a film is to not make a film.” – Stanley Kubrick
  51. “Cinema is a matter of what’s in the frame and what’s out.” – Martin Scorsese
  52. “Filmmaking is a chance to live many lifetimes.” – Robert Altman
  53. “Every time I go to a movie, it’s magic, no matter what the movie’s about.” – Steven Spielberg
  54. “The most honest form of filmmaking is to make a film for yourself.” – Peter Jackson
  55. “A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet.” – Orson Welles
  56. “A director makes only one movie in his life. Then he breaks it into pieces and makes it again.” – Jean Renoir
  57. “The best way to learn anything is by doing it.” – Quentin Tarantino
  58. “Cinema is the most beautiful fraud in the world.” – Jean-Luc Godard
  59. “The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.” – Alfred Hitchcock
  60. “To make a great film you need three things – the script, the script, and the script.” – Alfred Hitchcock
  61. “If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed.” – Stanley Kubrick
  62. “I think cinema, movies, and magic have always been closely associated. The very earliest people who made film were magicians.” – Francis Ford Coppola
  63. “The whole history of cinema is a history of those people who tried to make it art.” – Jean-Luc Godard
  64. “Movies are a fad. Audiences really want to see live actors on a stage.” – Charlie Chaplin
  65. “Filmmaking is a miracle of collaboration.” – James McAvoy
  66. “There’s a different energy that comes with watching a film at a cinema rather than at home. It’s like going to a football match; it’s a communal experience.” – Tim Bevan
  67. “To be a filmmaker, you have to lead; you have to be psychotic in your desire to do something.” – Nic Pizzolatto
  68. “Making a film means, first of all, to tell a story. That story can be rich in character, complex in structure, and wide in scope, but without a solid narrative base, the film has no reason for being.” – Ingmar Bergman
  69. “Film is truth 24 times a second.” – Jean-Luc Godard
  70. “A movie is never finished, only abandoned.” – George Lucas
  71. “Film is one of the three universal languages, the other two: mathematics and music.” – Frank Capra
  72. “The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.” – Dorothea Lange
  73. “In film, we sculpt time, we sculpt behavior, and we sculpt light.” – Abbas Kiarostami
  74. “The beauty of filmmaking is the power it gives you to influence others.” – Danny Boyle
  75. “A film is, or should be, more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings.” – Stanley Kubrick
  76. “Directing is a very mystical job; it’s a combination of pushing and pulling to get a composition.” – Gus Van Sant
  77. “Filmmaking is the ultimate team sport.” – Michael Keaton
  78. “I steal from every movie ever made.” – Quentin Tarantino
  79. “You don’t make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.” – Ansel Adams
  80. “Every great film should seem new every time you see it.” – Roger Ebert
  81. “Movies are not scripts – movies are films; they’re not books, they’re not the theatre.” – Nicolas Roeg
  82. “The difference between life and the movies is that a script has to make sense, and life doesn’t.” – Joseph L. Mankiewicz
  83. “The enemy of art is the absence of limitations.” – Orson Welles
  84. “A director must be a policeman, a midwife, a psychoanalyst, a sycophant, and a bastard.” – Billy Wilder
  85. “A good film is when the price of the dinner, the theatre admission, and the babysitter were worth it.” – Alfred Hitchcock
  86. “The cinema substitutes for our gaze a world more in harmony with our desires.” – André Bazin
  87. “The cinema is not an art which films life: the cinema is something between art and life.” – Jean-Luc Godard
  88. “The hardest thing in the world is to start an artistic creation.” – Jafar Panahi
  89. “Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second.” – Jean-Luc Godard
  90. “In the world of film, directors are God; in the world of television, writers are God.” – Steven Bochco
  91. “Cinema is an old whore, like circus and variety, who knows how to give many kinds of pleasure.” – Federico Fellini
  92. “The best films of any kind, narrative or documentary, provoke questions.” – Edward Norton
  93. “Filmmaking is not about the tiny details. It’s about the big picture.” – Ed Wood
  94. “When you make a film, you’re putting a message out to the world. Then the world delivers a message back to you.” – Anna Boden
  95. “Cinema is a universal language that brings people together, like no other art form.” – Zhang Yimou
  96. “The role of a director is to create a space where the actors can become more than they’ve ever been before.” – Robert Altman
  97. “My films are therapy for my debilitating depression.” – Woody Allen
  98. “Filmmaking is the art of turning money into light.” – Steve Burns
  99. “Filmmaking is the chance to live many lifetimes.” – Robert Altman
  100. “A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet.” – Orson Welles
  101. “I don’t dream at night, I dream at day, I dream all day; I’m dreaming for a living.” – Steven Spielberg
  102. “A director is a storyteller with the medium of film.” – George Lucas
  103. “Cinema is the ultimate pervert art. It doesn’t give you what you desire – it tells you how to desire.” – Slavoj Žižek
  104. “Filmmaking is a form of the expression of a filmmaker’s voice, their vision of the world.” – Alejandro González Iñárritu
  105. “Film is an emotional medium, and emotions are universal.” – Christopher Nolan
  106. “The most important thing in acting is honesty. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.” – George Burns
  107. “A film is the reflection of the director’s soul.” – Agnes Varda
  108. “The only safe thing is to take a chance.” – Mike Nichols
  109. “You make films to reach out to other people, to explore something you’re afraid of, to open a conversation.” – Ava DuVernay
  110. “Editing feels almost like sculpting or a form of continuing the writing process.” – Sydney Pollack
  111. “The beauty of film is that it is a collective dream.” – David Lynch
  112. “In film, every frame is a painting.” – Kurosawa Akira
  113. “If you’re going to tell a story, tell it properly.” – Christopher Nolan
  114. “A movie should entertain people, but the best movies also make you think.” – Quentin Tarantino
  115. “The art of making films is a process of problem-solving.” – Hirokazu Koreeda
  116. “In the end, films are about having something to say.” – Mira Nair
  117. “A filmmaker has almost the same freedom as a novelist has when he buys himself some paper.” – Stanley Kubrick
  118. “A director is someone who presides over accidents.” – Orson Welles
  119. “The most difficult part of filmmaking is to start.” – Krzysztof Kieslowski
  120. “Every single art form is involved in film, in a way.” – Sydney Pollack
  121. “Cinema should make you forget you are sitting in a theater.” – Roman Polanski
  122. “Cinema is a mirror by which we often see ourselves.” – Alejandro González Iñárritu
  123. “Cinema is the only art form that’s capable of telling you what to think about something.” – Guillermo del Toro
  124. “Film is a battleground. Love, hate, violence, action, death… In a word, emotion.” – Samuel Fuller
  125. “Every time you make a movie it’s a war.” – Kevin Costner
  126. “A director must be a policeman, a midwife, a psychoanalyst, a sycophant, and a bastard.” – Billy Wilder
  127. “The secret to film is that it’s an illusion.” – George Lucas
  128. “Every filmmaker knows that they are looking for something that cannot be found.” – Jafar Panahi
  129. “Film is incredibly democratic and accessible, it’s probably the best option if you actually want to change the world, not just re-decorate it.” – Banksy
  130. “A great movie evolves when everybody has the same vision in their heads.” – Alan Parker
  131. “A movie is a certain way of showing reality in a light that’s different from real life.” – Orson Welles
  132. “Film is the greatest way to consume information and get the most impact.” – Spike Jonze
  133. “When people ask me if I went to film school I tell them, ‘No, I went to films.’” – Quentin Tarantino
  134. “Film is one of the most powerful weapons in the world.” – Kathryn Bigelow
  135. “Every great film should seem new every time you see it.” – Roger Ebert
  136. “If you can’t make it good, at least make it look good.” – Bill Gates
  137. “I see filmmakers as dramatists and I consider what we do to be a very high, full art.” – Terrence Malick
  138. “The film is made in the editing room.” – Philip Seymour Hoffman
  139. “Filmmaking is the ultimate act of self-expression.” – Ridley Scott
  140. “A good film is when the price of the dinner, the theater admission, and the babysitter were worth it.” – Alfred Hitchcock
  141. “The best movies are the ones that don’t make the audience feel like they’re being talked down to.” – Paul Thomas Anderson
  142. “Filmmaking is about having a voice, and the more you use it, the better you become at expressing it.” – Ava DuVernay
  143. “A film is a petrified fountain of thought.” – Jean Cocteau
  144. “Film is a way of creating a world of your own.” – Harmony Korine
  145. “Film is the ultimate medium for empathy.” – Roger Ebert
  146. “The audience must be made to care about what is happening on screen.” – Orson Welles
  147. “To make a great film, you need three things: the script, the script, and the script.” – Alfred Hitchcock
  148. “The best films of any kind, narrative or documentary, provoke questions.” – Edward Norton
  149. “Filmmaking is not about the tiny details. It’s about the big picture.” – Ed Wood
  150. “Every time I go to a movie, it’s magic, no matter what the movie’s about.” – Steven Spielberg

Note: Some of these quotes are not specifically about filmmaking, but they can still be applied to the craft.

Filmmaking Quotes to Inspire You.

“If you want to be a successful filmmaker, you have to be passionate about it.” – Quentin Tarantino

“Making a film is like putting together a big, expensive jigsaw puzzle.” – Steven Spielberg

“The most important thing in making a movie is not what you shoot but what you don’t shoot.” – Francis Ford Coppola

“A good movie is when the audience leaves the theater wanting more.

“If it’s not on the page, it’s not on the stage” – Aaron Sorkin

“I never think about the audience. I’m interested in what excites me” – Woody Allen

“You have to have a lot of passion for what you’re doing because it’s hard work” – Ice Cube

Top 10 Filmmaking inspiring quotes.

In order to be a successful filmmaker, you need to have passion, dedication and drive. These 100 filmmaking inspiring quotes will help motivate you to achieve your goals.

1. “I’m very passionate about film-making and it’s a great way of expressing myself.” – Benedict Cumberbatch

2. “Film-making is all about communication. It’s about sharing an experience with an audience.” – Christopher Nolan

3. “Filmmaking is not about the equipment you have, it’s about the ideas you have.” – Quentin Tarantino

4. “Never stop learning; knowledge is the key to success.” – Ridley Scott

5. “The most important thing for a filmmaker is to always be true to their vision.” – Darren Aronofsky

6 . “My goal is not to make millions of dollars, but to make a film that will last as long as cinema itself.” Danny Boyle

7. “If you are not making movies and you are not trying to communicate something, then what the hell are you doing? You’re dead .” Stanley Kubrick

8. “I am interested in what happens when you take a large group of people and – for whatever reason – put them into a situation where they have to live together, and that becomes their reality.” Peter Weir

9 . “I try to make a very personal film, one that will speak to people in their own language.” Woody Allen

10. “Somewhere between the first and second act of a film, I go into a zone. It’s like going into a trance .” Francis Ford Coppola

11. “For me, the quality of life is very important, and there are many ways to express that quality. The cinema is one of those ways.” Lars von Trier

12 . “I think that the cinema, like all other art forms, is a great way of looking at life. It’s a way of bringing together people in an extraordinary way. The capacity to communicate is what makes us human.” Pedro Almodóvar

13 . “It is not easy to make a good film. I do not believe that it is possible. But it is possible to be bad on purpose.” Jean-Luc Godard

14 . “If you have the right material, you can make a good film. But to make a great film is an impossible task.” Jean-Luc Godard

15. “I think that it’s very important that cinema can be used as an educational tool . It can be a powerful tool to teach people the most important values of life. I think that it’s very important that cinema can be used as an educational tool. It can be a powerful tool to teach people the most important values of life. ” Pedro Almod var

16 . “I do not believe in the cinema as an art form. I do not believe it can be used as a tool of social change. But I believe that it can be used as an educational tool. It can make people think, and more important, to understand each other . ” Pedro Almod var

17 . “The challenge of the film is not in its content, but in its form. As a tool for social change, it is useless. But as an educational tool, it can be very helpful . ” Pedro Almod var

18 . “I think that the best thing that can be done for society is to have a discussion about it.  There are many things we can talk about, but we do not know how to do it . ” Pedro Almod var

19 . “The film is a good idea, but we have to be careful with it. We have to teach people about the other culture, and not about our own . ” Pedro Almod var

20 . “I do not think the film is a good idea. It can be very dangerous in our society, where we are used to seeing everything in a certain way . ” Pedro Almod var

What is a quote about movies?

This could be “The film was great” or “I thought the film was terrible.” A quote about movies should be something that you can relate to, so I think it is best if your quotes are about movies you have seen.

Hollywood Filmmaking Quotes to Inspire You

According to famed film critic Roger Ebert, “Movies are like a machine that generates empathy. It lets you understand a little bit more about different people.” In this way, movies allow us to explore the human experience in ways that we might not be able to otherwise. They can also be used as a tool for education, giving us access to knowledge that we might not have otherwise.

What is the most famous movie line ever said?

In the movie Thelma and Louise, Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon play two women on a road trip who end up killing a man they think is going to rape them. At the end of the movie, after they’ve been on the run for a while, Davis’ character says to Sarandon’s,

“What are we going to do now?” Sarandon replies, “I don’t know. But I’m pretty sure we’re gonna be all right.” This line has been quoted by many people over the years and is often considered one of the most famous movie lines ever said.

Conclusion:

Follow your passions and be relentless in your pursuit of them and you will be successful in Hollywood filmmaking. Read more of our filmmaking articles to learn more.