American film director & screenwriter (1925-2006)
Retirement? You're talking about death, right?
ROBERT ALTMAN
attributed, Words from the Wise
I'll give you the same advice I give my children: Never take advice from anybody.
ROBERT ALTMAN
Esquire, Mar. 2004
Jazz has endured because it doesn't have a beginning or an ending. It's a moment.
ROBERT ALTMAN
Esquire, Mar. 2004
Every ad for every film is exactly the same.
ROBERT ALTMAN
Esquire the Meaning of Life: Wisdom, Humor, and Damn Good Advice from 64 Extraordinary Lives
What is a cult? It just means not enough people to make a minority.
ROBERT ALTMAN
attributed, The Concise Columbia Dictionary of Quotations
I never knew what I wanted, except that it was something I hadn't seen before.
ROBERT ALTMAN
Esquire the Meaning of Life: Wisdom, Humor, and Damn Good Advice from 64 Extraordinary Lives
Words don't tell you what people are thinking. Rarely do we use words to really tell. We use words to sell people or to convince people or to make them admire us. It's all disguise. It's all hidden -- a secret language.
ROBERT ALTMAN
Esquire, Mar. 2004
Wisdom and love have nothing to do with one another. Wisdom is staying alive, survival. You're wise if you don't stick your finger in the light plug. Love -- you'll stick your finger in anything.
ROBERT ALTMAN
Esquire the Meaning of Life: Wisdom, Humor, and Damn Good Advice from 64 Extraordinary Lives
[The Player is] not a truthful indictment of Hollywood. It's much uglier than I portrayed it, but nobody would've been interested if I'd shown just how sadistic, cruel and self-orientated it is.
ROBERT ALTMAN
interview, Total Film: The Modern Guide to Movies, Mar. 15, 2004
Chance is another name that we give to our mistakes. And all of the best things in my films are mistakes.
ROBERT ALTMAN
"Still up to Mischief", The Guardian, Apr. 30, 2004
Happy endings are absolutely ludicrous, they're not true at all. We see the guy carry the girl across the threshold and everybody lives happily ever after -- that's bullshit. Three weeks later he's beating her up and she's suing for divorce and he's got cancer.
ROBERT ALTMAN
interview with Peter Keogh
[M*A*S*H] didn't get released by FOX, it escaped.
ROBERT ALTMAN
attributed, IMDB
All of my films deal with the same thing: striving, socially and culturally, to stay alive.
ROBERT ALTMAN
attributed, IMDB
Making a movie is like chipping away at a stone. You take a piece off here, you take a piece off there and when you're finished, you have a sculpture. You know that there's something in there, but you're not sure exactly what it is until you find it.
ROBERT ALTMAN
Star Tribune, Jun. 4, 2006
I make no apologies for Popeye. Behind M*A*S*H, it's my biggest hit. It got maligned by the critics because it wasn't Superman. It wasn't about special effects and it wasn't made for 14-year-old boys. The majority of films are made for 14-year-old boys; I don't know where they get the eight bucks to get in. It's hush money from the parents.
ROBERT ALTMAN
interview, Total Film: The Modern Guide to Movies, Mar. 15, 2004
I am not an expert. That is someone else's job. If I were expert, the approach would be all wrong. It would be from the inside. I am a blunderer. I usually don't know what I am going into at the start. I go into the fog and trust something will be there.
ROBERT ALTMAN
"Still up to Mischief", The Guardian, Apr. 30, 2004
I've been in this business long enough to have acclaim and disclaim, and to know the acclaim means no more than the disclaim.
ROBERT ALTMAN
"Still up to Mischief", The Guardian, Apr. 30, 2004
I've about had it -- the agencies, the winking, the networks, the ratings. Anyone who thinks TV is an art medium is crazy -- it's an advertising medium.
ROBERT ALTMAN
attributed, The Directors: Take Three
Most of my films I call arena films. I deal with a confined area -- an arena -- and I try to cover every aspect of it.
ROBERT ALTMAN
Stop Smiling, issue #23
The artist and the multitude are natural enemies. They always will be, both ways. The artist is an enemy of the multitude, and the multitude is the enemy of the artist. And when the disguise comes off and they're both standing facing one another, they're just there at odds end.
ROBERT ALTMAN
interview with F. Anthony Macklin, 1976