Ang Lee Quotes

If the movie is quiet I generally feel the audience is busy. That's when they're working.

I did a women's movie, and I'm not a woman. I did a gay movie, and I'm not gay. I learned as I went along.

Americans are hidden dragons to me.

I was very quiet, very shy and docile.

If it was a choice between making movies and doing nothing, he'd probably still wish me to make movies, So he made me keep going.

The L.A. weather is a lot like Taiwan's, where you don't observe four seasons, so the years can pass and you don't feel a thing.

I feel like all of my characters now take this congested situation, they clash, and from there you purge yourself.

I'm not macho, I'm not a Mel Gibson sort of person.

I try to please everyone.

The way I go about a lovemaking scene is that we will talk about it during the rehearsing time.

I think the American West really attracts me because it's romantic. The desert, the empty space, the drama.

I guess in Hollywood you chart your life by Oscars. You say to each other, 'Remember when that movie won that year? It was 2006. Remember that?'

Fighting for identity is something that is very much in my life.

I think a lot of people do big movies not because they are talented artists but because they can function in the circumstances.

In my culture, there's a tradition that when you're in an overwhelming situation and you don't know what to do, you put yourself in a woman's shoes.

I think that at heart I am an old-fashioned Chinese, really I am.

My father was the center of the family, and everyone tried to please him.

I don't lead a Hollywood lifestyle.

The woman's perspective is like the dark side of the moon: it always exists, but it is never exposed, at least not in my culture.

A movie is really provocation. It's not a message, it's not a statement.

Directing, I get all kinds of inspiration. It's working with people. It's a lot more fun.

I look at American movies, the big muscles, and try to apply that to Chinese film-making.

I don't have a superpower.

I'm such a late bloomer.

I don't like to deal with studios.

I'm aware of what's missing from my life.

When something possesses me, I go ahead and do it.

I don't think the Hulk is a superhero. He's the first Marvel character who is a tragic monster. Really an anti-hero.

I find it hard to deliver straightforward things.

In Taiwan, I'd be like Michael Jordan walking down the street.

I feel that everyone has a Hulk inside, and each of our Hulks is both scary and, potentially, pleasurable. That's the scariest thing about them.

Now I'm kind of established as a director, I much prefer directing to writing.

With 3D you're right there immersed in the world.

I had to test a new terror in myself.

I see a movie as a way of learning about the world, about myself, and learning about my relationship with people and art.

Kids don't even read comic books anymore. They've got more important things to do - like video games.

Many times when you make a movie, it feels like your biggest mistake. But even if a film isn't a hit, you shouldn't view it as a mistake.

I'm still a novice student.

Sensitivity and money are like parallel lines. They don't meet.

What is really a stretch to me is to make quick decisions.

I like to do drama, something about life that could be disappointing.

I don't care about writing really.

When I see something I like, that's all that counts. What they use, how they get there, I never bother them.

Everyone in the gay community doesn't think alike.

I just did a dramatic love story. Whether it's a cultural phenomenon is not for me to say.

I don't know if I make the best gay films.

I think people are universal.

The father figure is something I love, but also suffocate from and want to work against.

I have two sons in America, and all they care about in Chinese culture is Jackie Chan and Jet Li.

I'm just a pretty regular dad.

It's not a pleasure torturing actors, although some of them enjoy it.

When I started out, nobody gave me scripts, so I had to write.

I think I can work with any type of actor.

Sometimes, you have to get angry to get things done.

When there is a strong woman character in a story - that always grabs me.

I had to find my way of translating the excitement you get when you're reading comic books to the big screen.

I'm a drifter and an outsider. There's not one single environment I can totally belong to.

Emotions serve characters' purposes. That is their motivation.

For a filmmaker, it's a rare chance to do a personal film on a big canvas.

My hometown was one of the major U.S. Air Force bases.

I have a lot of repression. So repression is what I make movies about.

Beautifully-acted and precisely observed, ILO ILO is an amazing debut, full of heart and intelligence.

I'm a big boy now, and I have to deliver.

Making a martial arts film in English to me is the same as John Wayne speaking Chinese in a western

In the past I've made movies that were pretty universally liked. You can't really hate them. You can discard them, but you can't really hate them.

My culture doesn't regard acting highly.

Some actors give you what you want. Some you have to make do what you want.

We need storytelling. Otherwise life just goes on and on, like the number Pi.

American films are less American every day, because you have to please a world audience. There's less authenticity, so it's more accessible.

When I'm not working, I get very down, but when I am working, I get very immersed in it.

3D is quite a lot more advanced in animated movies; for live-action movies we're just taking baby steps, we're just in the beginning.

I don't have incredible knowledge about films or of filmmaking history; I'm not that kind of person.

I am a shy person.

I think a movie is a media that is evoking feelings.

I'm a storyteller.

Film study was considered disgraceful by my father.

My cultural roots are something illusive.

Thinking back to those earlier days, I felt I was weak when I wasn't making movies, and then when I was, I thought I was weak as a family member.

You can get rich or famous by doing the same thing.

I make movies for a long time. It doesn't get easier.

I like to think I'm un-categorisable.

I think I prefer 3D to 2D now.

I do like challenge.

No matter how widely spread out the films are, how different, you still are you.

After making several tragic movies in a row, I was looking to do a comedy, and one without cynicism.

As artists, we like night more than day sometimes.

I hate to think life is just facts and laws.

My mother loves me and everything goes well. I have no conflict with her, so that's not dramatic.

I'm not a romantic. In life I didn't have much experience with romance.

Economically, it's more expensive to make movies. I hope digital movies change that.

I'm actually living my life with the material I choose to work with.

The fear factor actually brings the genuineness.

I think each movie-making process is a very exhausting and satisfying and fulfilling experience for me.

I think life without spirit is in the dark, it is absurd.

I think great romance needs great obstacles and textures.

You become the movie you are making.

There's only one movie in my career I've had regrets with cutting it shorter, and I think some scenes maybe I shouldn't have cut.

I'm not a master of films, I'm rather a slave.

I'm a shy human being.

I grew up pretty much prevented from knowing anything from Communist China except that they were the bad guys that stole our country.