100+ George Lucas Quotes | InspiringQuotes.us

The Force is really a way of feeling; it's a way of being with life. It really has nothing to do with weapons. The Force gives you the power to have extrasensory perception and to be able to see things and hear things, read minds and levitate things. It is said that certain creatures are born with a higher awareness of the Force than humans. Their brains are different; they have more midi-chlorians in their cells.

Topics: Cells, Giving, Feelings, Levitation, Midi

quote always remember your focus determines your reality george lucas Quotes

Anybody that makes films knows the film is never finished. It's abandoned or it's ripped out of your hands, and it's thrown into the marketplace, never finished. It's a very rare experience where you find a filmmaker who says, "That's exactly what I wanted. I got everything I needed. I made it just perfect. I'm going to put it out there."

Topics: Hands, Perfect, Film, Ripped

Always remember, your focus determines your reality.

source: - Patricia C. Wrede, George Lucas (2012). “Star Wars®: Episode I: The Phantom Menace”, p.118, Scholastic Inc.

Topics: Business, Inspirational Life, Positive Thinking, Jinn

Most artists, most painters, even composers would want to come back and redo their work. They've got a new perspective on it, they've got more resources, they have better technology, and they can fix or finish the things that were never done.

Topics: Technology, Artist, Perspective, Redos, New Perspective

You have to find something that you love enough to be able to take risks, jump over the hurdles and break through the brick walls that are always going to be placed in front of you. If you don't have that kind of feeling for what it is you're doing, you'll stop at the first giant hurdle.

Topics: Inspirational, Motivational, Wall, Brick Wall

I'm the one who has to have everybody throw rocks at me all the time, so at least if they're going to throw rocks at me, they're going to throw rocks at me for something I love rather than something I think is not very good, or at least something I think is not finished.

Topics: Thinking, Rocks, Very Good

No! Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try.

source: - George Lucas (2015). “ArtFolds: Yoda: Yoda and the Force”, p.75, Simon and Schuster

Topics: Inspirational, Motivational, Inspiring, Inspiring Movie, Knowing The Future

The thing about science-fiction fans and "Star Wars" fans is they're very independent-thinking people. They all think outside the box, but they all have very strong ideas about what should happen, and they think it should be their way. Which is fine, except I'm making the movies, so I should have it my way.

Topics: Strong, Stars, War, Independent Thinking, Think Outside The Box

You can't do it unless you can imagine it.

Topics: Motivational, Imagine, Mission And Vision, Leadership And Vision, Leadership Vision

A lot of great thinkers- like Einstein and Newton- come up with their best ideas when they're young because they don't yet think in the way that the establishment teaches them. Sometimes your lack of knowledge frees your mind to be creative and think in a different way. But you still have to be logical and figure out a practical way to get things done, even though you're looking at things differently.

Topics: Thinking, Ideas, Creative, Lack Of Knowledge, Great Thinkers

The secret is not to give up hope. It's very hard not to because if you're really doing something worthwhile I think you will be pushed to the brink of hopelessness before you come through the other side.

Topics: Motivational, Giving Up, Thinking

Follow your bliss. Do the thing where you sit down at 8 a.m. and then you realize you're hungry and you look up and it's 10 p.m. If you can find something you love that much, it doesn't matter what you do.

source: - "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

Topics: Looks, Matter, Realizing

Working hard is very important. You're not going to get anywhere without working extremely hard.

Topics: Motivational, Work, Important, Working Very Hard, Work Related

Real love is on the inside. It's somebody you have a common ground with, you share the same values, you share the same interests, you share the same humor, you share all those things that are things that will last you the rest of your life.

Topics: Real, Love Is, Lasts

You simply have to put one foot in front of the other and keep going. Put blinders on and plow right ahead.

Topics: Motivational, Feet, Never Quit, Blinders

Time is more important to me than money.

Topics: Important

I am dedicating the majority of my wealth to improving education. It is the key to the survival of the human race. We have to plan for our collective future -- and the first step begins with the social, emotional, and intellectual tools we provide to our children. As humans, our greatest tool for survival is our ability to think and to adapt - as educators, storytellers, and communicators our responsibility is to continue to do so.

Topics: Children, Responsibility, Emotional

If I make a movie that has a whole bunch of music in it, I get to listen to the music all day long, and I don't have to say, 'Well, I gotta go back to work and I gotta stop listening to the music.' I get to listen to music and go to work.

Topics: Long, Listening, Back To Work

People who alter or destroy works of art and our cultural heritage for profit or as an exercise of power are barbarians.

Topics: Art, Real, Exercise, Cultural Heritage

Heroes come in all sizes, and you don't have to be a giant hero. You can be a very small hero. It's just as important to understand that accepting self-responsibi lity for the things you do, having good manners, caring about other people-these are heroic acts. Everybody has the choice of being a hero or not being a hero every day of their lives.

source: - "Of Myth And Men". Interview with Bill Moyers, content.time.com. April 18, 1999.

Topics: Hero, Caring, Self, Being A Hero, Heroic Acts

There is no why. We are. Life is beyond reason.

Topics: Life Is, Reason

Part of the issue of achievement is to be able to set realistic goals, but that's one of the hardest things to do because you don't always know exactly where you're going, and you shouldn't.

Topics: Inspirational, Life, Motivational, Achieving Your Goals, Goal Achievement

Oh, my. I'd forgotten how much I hate space travel.

Topics: Travel, Hate, Forgotten

I wanted to make a kids' film that would strengthen contemporary mythology.

Topics: Film, Mythology

Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will...

Topics: Dark, Destiny, Forever, Jedi Knights, Dark Side

Someday you're going to have to learn to separate what seems to be important from what really is important.

source: - George Lucas (2011). “A New Hope: Star Wars: Episode IV”, p.28, Del Rey

Topics: Important, Someday

Train yourself to let go of the things you fear to lose.

Topics: Letting Go, Train

A movie is never finished, only abandoned.

Topics: Abandoned

I have a strong feeling about interesting people in space exploration. . . . And the only way it's going to happen is to have some kid fantasize about getting his ray gun, jumping into his spaceship, and flying into outer space.

source: - Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

Topics: Strong, Kids, Gun

Everybody has talent, it's just a matter of moving around until you've discovered what it is.

Topics: Moving, Matter, Self Help, Skills And Talent

Learning to make films is very easy. Learning what to make films about is very hard.

Topics: Film, Easy

I thought Star Wars was too wacky for the general public.

Topics: Stars, War, Wacky

The secret to film is that it's an illusion.

Topics: Movie, Secret Love, Film

If the boy and girl walk off into the sunset hand-in-hand in the last scene, it adds 10 million to the box office.

Topics: Girl, Sunset, Boys, Happy Girl, Boy And Girl

If I had time and a hammer, I'd track down every bootleg copy and smash it.

Topics: Track, Hammers, Copies

When people talk to me about the digital divide, I think of it not so much about who has access to what technology as about who knows how to create and express themselves in the new language of the screen. If students aren't taught the language of sound and images, shouldn't they be considered as illiterate as if they left college without being able to read and write?

Topics: Writing, Technology, College, Digital Divide, Media Literacy

The one way the world hasn't changed: teaching is still the most important job.

Topics: Jobs, Teaching, Important

We were always dreaming of how it was going to be.

Topics: Dream, Life Dream, Dreams And Reality

If America is the pursuit of happiness, the best way to pursue happiness is to help other people.

Topics: Basketball, Helping Others, Pursuit Of Happiness

A special effect is a tool, a means of telling a story. A special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing.

Topics: Mean, Special, Tools, Special Effects, Boring Things

Education is the single most important job of the human race.

Topics: Jobs, Educational, Race

My first six years in the business were hopeless. There are a lot of times when you sit and you say "Why am I doing this? I'll never make it. It's just not going to happen. I should go out and get a real job, and try to survive."

Topics: Inspirational, Jobs, Real

So this is how liberty dies. With thunderous applause.

Topics: Liberty, Applause, Sith, Always With You

In the future it will become even easier for old negatives to become lost and be ?replaced? by new altered negatives. This would be a great loss to our society. Our cultural history must not be allowed to be rewritten.

Topics: Loss, Would Be, Our Society, Altered, Great Loss

But having a really good understanding of history, literature, psychology, sciences - is very, very important to actually being able to make movies.

Topics: Psychology, Understanding, Important, Good Understanding

It's now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. I've always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime.

Topics: Stars, War, Important

We are all living in cages with the door wide open.

Topics: Doors, Cages, Wide

The ability to speak does not make you intelligent.

source: - Patricia C. Wrede, George Lucas (2012). “Star Wars®: Episode I: The Phantom Menace”, p.21, Scholastic Inc.

Topics: Intelligent, Doe, Jinn, War Movie, Star Wars Movie

It's okay to lose; just don't lose the lesson.

Topics: Sports, Lessons, Okay

My success wasn't based on how I could push down everybody that was around me. My success was based on how much I could push everybody up.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.

source: - Patricia C. Wrede, George Lucas (2012). “Star Wars®: Episode I: The Phantom Menace”, p.112, Scholastic Inc.

Topics: Depression, Fear, Hate, Jedi Knights, Jinn

It's very important not to do what your peers think you should do, not do what your parents think,your teachers or even your culture. Do what's inside of you.

Topics: Motivational, Teacher, Thinking

You don't see the struggle part of a person's life. You only see the success they have.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Struggle, Persons

If you want to be successful in a particular field of endeavor, I think perseverance is one of the key qualities.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Perseverance, Successful, Thinking, Deep Passion, Passion And Success

You can find people who have discovered the fact that it's really helping people, it's really being compassionate toward other human beings that makes you happy, that gives you a spiritual fulfillment - a kind of fulfillment that goes way beyond anything you can buy.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". The Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Spiritual, People, Giving, Helping People

Don't avoid the cliches - they are cliches because they work!

source: - "The Imagineering Way: Ideas to Ignite your Creativity" by Marty Sklar, 2003.

Topics: Cliche

Good luck has its storms.

Topics: Good Luck, Luck, Storm

Any society begins by realizing that together, by helping each other, you can survive better than if you fight each other and compete with each other.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". The Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Fighting, Together, Helping, Helping Each Other

[Star Wars is] designed primarily to make young people think about the mystery. Not to say, 'Here's the answer.' It's to say, 'Think about this for a second. Is there a God? What does God look like? What does God sound like? What does God feel like? How do we relate to God?'

Topics: Stars, War, Thinking

All the religions are true, they just see a different part of the elephant.

source: - "The Mythology of ‘Star Wars’ with George Lucas". "Bill Moyers Journal", billmoyers.com. June 18, 1999.

Topics: Elephants, Different

You can be as rich, and famous, and powerful as you want to be, and it will not bring you happiness. That's said over and over and over, again. It's such a cliché that it hardly needs to be said, but people don't understand that it's actually true.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". The Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Powerful, People, Needs

I think as you grow up, you realize you have obligations just in your life - being a citizen, being part of humanity - to help other people, to help your country, to help the world.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Country, Growing Up, Helping Others

You must let go of your past and embrace your future and figure out what path you're going to go down

Topics: Letting Go, Past, Path

Art is the retelling of certain themes in a new light, making them accessible to the public of the moment.

source: - 1988 In the NewYork Times, 9 Jun.

Topics: Art, Light, Moments, Retelling

George Orwell was right. There's no greater genius as far as I'm concerned in terms of understanding human nature. I think that a lot of people just believe anything you tell them, and no matter what it is, they just go along with the program. They're perfectly happy to take their pill every day and do what they're told, and work and buy things, and work and buy things, and stay out of any complex emotional situations. And whatever the authorities tell them to do, they do, and whatever the authorities say is the truth, they believe is the truth.

Topics: Believe, Emotional, Thinking, Just Believe

Teachers are the most important individuals in our society - nothing is as powerful as the human touch in education.

Topics: Teacher, Powerful, Important

I've always tried to be aware of what I say in my films, because all of us who make motion pictures are teachers - teachers with very loud voices.

Topics: Education, Teacher, Teaching, Loud Voices

Part of the reason my friends and I became successful is that we were always helping each other.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Successful, Helping, Reason

All democracies turn into dictatorships - but not by coup. The people give their democracy to a dictator, whether it's Julius Caesar or Napoleon or Adolf Hitler. Ultimately, the general population goes along with the idea.

source: - "Democracy, Tyranny, and Star Wars". Time Interview, www.ign.com. April 25, 2002.

Topics: Ideas, People, Giving, Coups

Sound is 50 percent of the movie going experience, and I've always believed audiences are moved and excited by what they hear in my movies at least as much as by what they see.

Topics: Sound, Excited, Always Believe

It's not a matter of how well can you make a movie. It's how well can you make it under the circumstance, because there's always circumstances. You cannot use that as an excuse.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Use, Matter, Circumstances

Storytelling is about two things; it's about character and plot.

Topics: Character, Two, Plot

The theme that runs through my movies is the fact that we create barriers for ourselves....because we say, Well, I can't do that. But in the end, you can't do it unless you can imagine yourself succeeding at it.

Topics: Running, Succeed, Facts

I think that God gave us a brain, and that it's the only thing we have to survive. All life forms have some advantage, some trick, some claw, some camouflage, some poison, some speed, something to help them survive. We've got a brain. Therefore it's our duty to use our brain.

source: - Source: www.boston.com

Topics: Thinking, Brain, Poison

The underlying issues, the psychological motives, in all my movies have been the same, he said. Personal responsibility and friendship, the importance of a compassionate life as opposed to a passionate life.

Topics: Responsibility, Issues, Passionate, Passionate Life

Making a film is like putting out a fire with sieve. There are so many elements, and it gets so complicated.

source: - Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

Topics: Fire, Elements, Film

You need peers; you need people who are at the same level you are. You never know in life when you're going to need help, and you never know who you're going to need it from.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: People, Needs, Peers

Ultimately the Force is the larger mystery of the universe. And to trust your feelings is your way into that.

source: - "Of Myth And Men". Interview with Bill Moyers, content.time.com. April 18, 1999.

Topics: Feelings, Way, Mystery

The secret to the movie business, or any business, is to get a good education in a subject besides film - whether it's history, psychology, economics, or architecture - so you have something to make a movie about. All the skill in the world isn't going to help you unless you have something to say.

source: - "the force". Interview with Katie Lucas, www.seventeen.com. June 29, 2010.

Topics: Motivational, Skills, Psychology

Being in Washington is more fictional than being in Hollywood.

source: - "Lucas in a D.C. daze" by William Triplett, variety.com. February 20, 2006.

Topics: Hollywood

I came from a very avant-garde documentary kind of film making world. I like cinema verité, documentaries. I liked non-story, non-character tone poems. And that's the film making that I was interested in.

Topics: Character, Tone, Avant Garde

If I'd have gone to art school, or stayed in anthropology, I probably would have ended up back in film ... Mostly I just followed my inner feelings and passions ... and kept going to where it got warmer and warmer, until it finally got hot ... Everybody has talent. It's just a matter of moving around until you've discovered what it is.

Topics: Art, Moving, Passion, Inner Feelings

After a lot of struggling and sort of reflection I realized that the time you have to give is now, regardless of how old you are.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". The Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Struggle, Reflection, Giving

One of the basic motifs in fairy tales is that you find the poor and unfortunate along the side of the road, and when they beg for help, if you give it to them, you end up succeeding. If you don't give it to them, you end up being turned into a frog or something. It's something that's been around for thousands of years, a concept that's been around for thousands of years.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Years, Giving, Frogs, Motifs

My life is making movies. I like storytelling, and I've got a lot of stories that are stored up in my head that I hope to get out before my time is up.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Stories, Life Is, Storytelling

You really have to focus on what you're doing and just plow ahead no matter what hurdles are thrown in front of you.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Focus, Matter, Hurdle

Star Wars has always struck a chord with people. There are issues of loyalty, of friendship, of good and evil... The theme came from stories and ideas that have been around for thousands of years.

Topics: Loyalty, Stars, War

Never tell me the odds!

source: - The Empire Strikes Back (motion picture) (1980).

Topics: Inspirational, Business, War

A lot of people like to do certain things, but they're not that good at it. Keep going through the things that you like to do, until you find something that you actually seem to be extremely good at. It can be anything.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". The Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Motivational, People, Certain

They were at the wrong place at the wrong time naturally they became heroes

source: - George Lucas (2011). “A New Hope: Star Wars: Episode IV”, p.2, Del Rey

Topics: Hero, Brokeback Mountain, Aces, Korean War, Vietnam War

I'm here, and every day now is an extra day. I've been given an extra day so I've got to make the most of it.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Given, Extras

You try to get yourself into a situation where you only have to answer to yourself, where you can ask advice of people and work with your peers and mentors and things to try to do the best job that you can possibly do.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Jobs, Best Job, People

There wasn't anything in my life that was going to stop me from making movies.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

I'm extremely grateful that I discovered my passion. I love movies. I love to watch them, I love to make them.

Topics: Grateful, Passion, Movie Love

I want to live where I want to live, and I will make films because I love to make films.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Want, Film

The best way to truly understand narrative art is to experience it.

Topics: Art, Narrative, Way, Narrative Art

The older you get, the less seriously you take criticism. I've gotten to a point now where I ignore it completely. It's just not relevant to me anymore.

Topics: Criticism, Relevant

In the end, the most important thing to me is that I've raised three kids. I know that'll be the most important accomplishment of my life and it is the most easily obtainable, because all you have to do is pay attention. It is hard work and most people don't realize that's the real gift they are getting in terms of goals and success and accomplishments.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Real, Hard Work, Kids

I haven't met anybody who hasn't been able to describe years and years and years of very, very difficult struggle through the whole process of achieving anything whatsoever. And there's no way to sort of get around that.

Topics: Struggle, Years, Able

I wanted Yoda to be the traditional kind of character you find in fairy tales and mythology. And that character is usually a frog or a wizened old man on the side of the road. The hero is going down the road and meets this poor and insignificant person. The goal or lesson is for the hero to learn to respect everybody and to pay attention to the poorest person because that's where the key to his success will be.

Topics: Hero, Character, Men

I was a terrible student in high school and the thing that the auto accident did - and it happened just as I graduated, so I was at this sort of crossroads - but it made me apply myself more, because I realized more than anything else what a thin thread we hang on in life, and I really wanted to make something out of my life.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". The Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: School, Students, Crossroads

I regret not the things I have done, only those I have yet to do.

Topics: Love, Dream, Regret

All of my films have been very hard to understand at the script stage because they're very different. At the time I did them they were not conventional. The executives could only think in terms of what they'd already seen. It's hard for them to think in terms of what has never been done before.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Thinking, Different, Done

[In ancient Rome,] why did the senate after killing Caesar turn around and give the government to his nephew? Why did France after they got rid of the king and that whole system turn around and give it to Napoleon? It's the same thing with Germany and Hitler.

source: - "'Sith' Invites Bush Comparisons" by Ellen Crean, www.cbsnews.com. May 16, 2005.

Topics: Kings, Government, Rome, Ancient Rome

There are a lot of movies that are badly made that I love, and there are a lot of movies that are just beautifully made but I don't like them. And critics have a tendency - that's all they focus on, which is, "I like it. I don't like it. It's good. It's bad."

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". The Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Focus, Made, Tendencies

A film is sort of binary - it either works or it doesn't work. It has nothing to do with how good a job you do. If you bring it up to an adequate level where the audience goes with the movie, then it works, that is all.

Topics: Jobs, Levels, Adequate, Binary

That had always been my purpose: to get people back in touch with what makes us so valuable as a human race.

Topics: Race, People, Purpose

A talent is a combination of something you love a great deal and something you can lose yourself in - something that you can start at 9 o'clock, look up from your work and it's 10 o'clock at night.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". The Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Night, Looks, Talent

I am simply trying to struggle through life trying to do God's bidding.

source: - "Is the Force Really With You?" by Dave hunt, www.thebereancall.org. May 1, 2002.

Topics: Life, Struggle, Trying

Star Wars is a saga of Good vs. Evil, divided into nine parts.

Topics: Stars, War, Evil, Saga, Good Vs Evil

From kindergarten to college, certain teachers engaged my curiosity and motivated me to learn. While I was not the best student, their efforts left a lasting impact.

source: - "Celebrating Unsung Heroes in Education" by George Lucas, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 7, 2013.

Topics: Teacher, College, Impact, Lasting Impact, Best Students

Success is when you try to achieve your inward vision externally and have it come off the way you see it. Then YOU feel successful about it; that's how success is measured.

Topics: Successful, Vision, Trying, Success Is Measured

May the Force be with you.

source: - Star Wars (motion picture) (1977)

Topics: Movie, Film History, Psychics, Chosen One, Best Film

I've discovered that most critics themselves are cinematically illiterate. They don't really know much about movies. They don't know the history. They don't know the technology. They don't know anything. So for them to try to analyze it, they're lost.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Technology, Trying, Lost

I would like to see our society mature, and become more rational and more knowledge-based, less emotion-based.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Our Society, Emotion, Mature

The story being told in 'Star Wars' is a classic one. Every few hundred years, the story is retold because we have a tendency to do the same things over and over again. Power corrupts, and when you're in charge, you start doing things that you think are right, but they're actually not.

source: - "George Lucas on 'Star Wars,' 'Fahrenheit 9/11,' and his own legacy". Interview with Steve Silverman, www.wired.com. May 1, 2005.

Topics: Stars, War, Thinking, Power Corrupts

All art is dependent on technology because it's a human endeavour , so even when you're using charcoal on a wall or designed the proscenium arch, that's technology .

Topics: Art, Wall, Technology

It's hard work making movies. It's like being a doctor: you work long hours, very hard hours, and it's emotional, tense work. If you don't really love it, then it ain't worth it.

source: - "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

Topics: Hard Work, Emotional, Doctors

'Young Indiana Jones' was one of the happiest times I ever had, so I love television.

Topics: Television, Indiana, Young

I must admit I suffered a bit when I first came to England. But then I realised that there was nothing to be intimidated by, everybody had two legs.

Topics: Two, Legs, Firsts

STAR WARS is really three trilogies, nine films. The first trilogy covers the fall of the Republic and the rise of the Empire, the middle trilogy the fall of the Empire, and the last trilogy involves the rebuilding of the Republic. It won't be finished for probably another 20 years.

Topics: Stars, War, Fall, Trilogies

It took me three, four years, to get from my first film to my second film, banging on doors, trying to get people to give me a chance. Writing, struggling, with no money in the bank, working as an editor on the side. Working as a cameraman on the side. Getting little jobs, eking out a living. Trying to stay alive, and pushing a script that nobody wanted.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". The Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Jobs, Struggle, Writing, Give Me A Chance, Cameraman

The script is what you`ve dreamed up - this is what it should be. The film is what you end up with.

source: - "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

Topics: Directors, Scripts, Film, Screenwriting

Most organisms either adapt and become part of the system, or get wiped out. The only thing we have to adapt to the system with is our brain. If we don't use it, and we don't adapt fast enough, we won't survive.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Brain, Use, Enough, Organisms

Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force. Mourn them, do not. Miss them, do not. Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed, that is. Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose

source: - George Lucas (2005). “Revenge of the Sith: Illustrated Screenplay: Star Wars: Episode III”, p.54, Del Rey

Topics: Letting Go, Attachment, Greed, Sith, Anger And Fear

Whatever has happened in my quest for innovation has been part of my quest for immaculate reality.

Topics: Reality, Innovation, Quests

Suddenly everything came together in one place. All my likes, everything I actually seemed to have talent for was right there. I said, "Hey, this is it. I can do this really well. I really love to do it."

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Together, Hey, Likes

I've had much more down in my life than I've had up. And much more struggle. First of all, when I went into the film school everybody said, "What are you doing? This is a complete dead-end for a career."

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Struggle, School, Careers

'Star Wars' is fun, its exciting, its inspirational, and people respond to that. It's what they want.

Topics: Stars, Fun, War

I wanted to make abstract films that are emotional, and I still do.

source: - "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

Topics: Emotional, Film, Abstract

I've always just followed my own course, whatever I found the most interesting to me at the moment. I've never had a real plan of, "I want to get from here to there, and I've got to do this."

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Real, Interesting, Want

Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter.

source: - The Empire Strikes Back (motion picture) (1980).

Topics: Change, War, Growth, Starting Anew, Judge Me

There are a few critics overseas, and occasionally a critic will write an astute analysis of the movie. There is value in reading critics that actually have something intelligent to say, but the journalistic community lives in a world of sound bites and literary commerce: selling newspapers, selling books, and they do that simply by trashing things. They don't criticize or analyze them. They simply trash them for the sake of a headline, or to shock people to get them to buy whatever it is they're selling.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". The Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Book, Reading, Writing, Sound Bites, Astute

Today it is an amazing, if unexpected, legacy of Star Wars that so many gifted writers are contributing new stories to the Saga.

Topics: Stars, War, Gifted Writers, Saga

Young people don't have a fantasy life anymore, not the way we did. All they've got is Kojak and Dirty Harry. There's all these kids running around wanting to be killer cops.

Topics: Running, Dirty, Kids, Fantasy Life

The influence of 'Hidden Fortress' comes up a lot because it was printed in a book once. The truth is, the only thing I was inspired by was the fact that it's told from the point of view of two peasants, who get mixed up with a samurai and princess and a lot of very high-level people.

Topics: Book, Princess, Views, Fortresses

The sound and music are 50% of the entertainment in a movie.

Topics: Movie, Sound And Music, Actors

That's the issue that I've been exploring: How did the Republic turn into the Empire? That's paralleled with: How did Anakin turn into Darth Vader? How does a good person go bad, and how does a democracy become a dictatorship? It isn't that the Empire conquered the Republic, it's that the Empire is the Republic.

source: - "Democracy, Tyranny, And Star Wars" By Paul Davidson, www.ign.com. April 25, 2002.

Topics: Issues, Democracy, Doe, Vader

Everybody has talent and it's just a matter of moving around until you've discovered what it is. A talent is a combination of something you love a great deal and something you can lose yourself in - something that you can start at 9 o'clock, look up from your work and it's 10 o'clock at night - and also something that you have a talent, not a talent for, but skills that you have a natural ability to do very well. And usually those two things go together.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". The Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Moving, Night, Skills, Natural Ability

The sciences are the 'how,' and the humanities are the 'why' - why are we here, why do we believe in the things we believe in. I don't think you can have the 'how' without the 'why.'

Topics: Believe, Thinking, Humanity

I loved photography and everybody said it was a crazy thing to do because in those days nobody made it into the film business. I mean, unless you were related to somebody there was no way in.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". The Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Photography, Crazy, Mean

You want people to think. You want people to be emotionally moved. And there's a theory behind that in terms of storytelling. It has been around for thousands of years. And that's where something like live theater or a live performance is something that is very valuable because you get instant feedback from your audience and you kind of know the things that work and the things that don't work.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Thinking, Years, People, Live Performance, Live Theater

I think there are going to be some social changes that take place due to the Internet, and the availability of the tools to more and more people. I think you are going to find a lot of people re-cutting movies and changing them, making them into their own movies.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Cutting, Thinking, Availability

The technology keeps moving forward, which makes it easier for the artists to tell their stories and paint the pictures they want.

Topics: Moving, Artist, Technology, Just Keep Moving Forward

If you look at 'Blade Runner,' it's been cut sixteen ways from Sunday, and there are all kinds of different versions of it.

source: - "5 Questions With George Lucas: Controversial 'Star Wars' Changes, SOPA and 'Indiana Jones 5'". Interview With Alex Ben Block, www.hollywoodreporter.com. February 9, 2012.

Topics: Cutting, Sunday, Blade Runner

You have the most important job of anyone today. Our kids need you to advocate for their futures.

Topics: Teacher, Jobs, Kids

Before I became a film major, I was very heavily into social science, I had done a lot of sociology, anthropology, and I was playing in what I call social psychology, which is sort of an offshoot of anthropology/sociology - looking at a culture as a living organism, why it does what it does.

Topics: Psychology, Doe, Culture, Living Organisms, Social Psychology

'American Graffiti' was unpleasant because of the fact that there was no money, no time, and I was compromising myself to death.

Topics: Graffiti, Facts, Compromise

I was always extremely curious about why people did the things they do.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". The Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: People, Curious

I am more of a visual person than a verbal person. For me, I think, the excitement is the fact that I found a way of telling the story as I want to tell it, in a medium that I could master.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Thinking, Facts, Stories

There wasn't much as a kid that inspired me in what I did as an adult, but I was always very interested in what motivates people, and in telling stories and building things.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". The Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Kids, People, Adults, Building Things

I have a supermarket full of ideas and the challenge is how many ideas can I get in my cart before I'm gone. When you're doing it, you're not focused on success. It's not a matter of modesty. You're simply trying to get all the things done that you want to get done in your life.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Ideas, Challenges, Trying, Carts

We seemed to be drifting as a society - losing touch with the basic concepts of right and wrong.

Topics: Losing, Drifting, Concepts

I intend more of a kinship with silent films than more modern film. I like the old cinema. My films are more of a hybrid - a different style of filmmaking to what I call talking head movies. Some people don't get it. Especially the more academic types.

source: - "Star Wars archive: George Lucas 1999 interview". Interview with Ian Freer, www.empireonline.com. September 1999.

Topics: Talking, Silent Films, People, Talking Heads

I am a giant proponent of giant screens. But I accept the fact that most of my movies are going to be seen on phones.

source: - "A Conversation with George Lucas" by Richard Corliss, March 14, 2006.

Topics: Phones, Giants, Facts

Sometimes you must let go of your pride and do what is asked of us. Anakin Skywalker, Episode 2: Attack of the Clones

Topics: Letting Go, Pride, Sometimes

It was the money from 'Star Wars' and 'Jaws' that allowed the theaters to build their multiplexes, which allowed an opening up of screens.

Topics: Stars, War, Opening Up

Human nature means battling constantly between being completely self-absorbed and trying to be a communal creature. Nature makes you a communal creature. The ultimate single-minded, self-centered creature is a cancer cell. And mostly, we're not made up of cancer cells.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Cancer, Mean, Self, Self Absorbed

I like racing. I love the speed and I'm a very kinetic person in terms of filmmaking. I love the movement of film more than anything else.

source: - "Star Wars archive: George Lucas 1999 interview". Interview with Ian Freer, www.empireonline.com. September 1999.

Topics: Racing, Movement, Film

I wanted to be a car mechanic and I wanted to race cars and the idea of trying to make something out of my life wasn't really a priority. But the accident allowed me to apply myself at school. I got great grades. Eventually I got very excited about anthropology and about social sciences and psychology, and I was able to push my photography even further and eventually discovered film and film schools.

Topics: Photography, School, Ideas, Film School

I think one of the reasons that Steven (Spielberg) and I have been as successful as we have is because we like the movies. We like to go to the movies. We enjoy movies and we want to make movies like the ones we enjoy.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Successful, Thinking, Want

The story being told in Star Wars is a classic one. Every few hundred years, the story is retold because we have a tendency to do the same things over and over again.

source: - "George Lucas on Star Wars, Fahrenheit 9/11, and his own legacy". Interview with Steve Silberman, www.wired.com. May 01, 2005.

Topics: Stars, War, Years

Each time I do a trilogy it's ten years out of my life. I'll finish Episode III and I'll be 60. And the next 20 years after that I want to spend doing something other than Star Wars. If at 80 I'm still lively and having a good time and think I can work for another 10 years between 80 and 90, I might consider it. But don't count on it. There's nothing written, and it's not like I'm completing something. I'd have to start from scratch. The idea of a third trilogy was more of a media thing than it was me.

Topics: Stars, War, Thinking, Completing, Trilogies

Our system of education is locked in a time capsule. You want to say to the people in charge, 'You're not using today's tools! Wake up!'

source: - "Lucas starts new educational crusade / Magazine seeks to spur change in the classroom" by Dan Fost, www.sfgate.com. October 17, 2004.

Topics: Teaching, Learning, Technology, Time Capsules

I'm not much of a math and science guy. I spent most of my time in school daydreaming and managed to turn it into a living. When I was making "Star Wars," I wasn't restrained by any kind of science. I simply said, "I'm going to create a world that's fun and interesting, makes sense, and seems to have a reality to it."

source: - Source: www.boston.com

Topics: Stars, Fun, War, Simply Said

You may make something you don't think is very important during your lifetime and it'll last for a thousand years.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Thinking, Years, Important

When a movie comes out, I always go off on a beach so I miss all the craziness that goes on, all the hoopla, and the hype and the success, and how much it's making, or whether it's doing good or whether it's doing bad. I just miss it all. I don't talk to anybody, and a couple weeks later I come back and it's all over with.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Beach, Couple, Hype

For the third trilogy, I don't know if I will still be alive when it comes the time to make them.

Topics: Alive, Trilogies, Thirds

You have to understand that it's a very cooperative world, not only with the environment, with but our fellow human beings. If you do not cooperate, if you do not work together to keep the entire organism going, the whole thing dies, and everybody dies with it. That's a law of nature, and it's existed forever. We're one of the very few creatures that has a choice, and can intellectualize the process.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Law, Choices, Forever, Organisms, Cooperatives

These Are Not The Droids You Are Looking For.

source: - George Lucas, Sally Kline (1999). “George Lucas: Interviews”, p.208, Univ. Press of Mississippi

Topics: War, Jedi Knights, Books And Movies, Best Film, Star Wars Movie

I'm lucky enough that there is never a blank canvas in front of me... I have hundreds of projects that I want to do but I am running out of time.

Topics: Running, Lucky, Want, Running Out Of Time, Blank Canvas

I made lots of movies while in school while everybody else was running around saying, "Oh, I wish I could make a movie. I wish they'd give me some film."

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Running, School, Giving

As I talk to film students now especially, I say, "The easiest job you'll ever get is to try to make your first film." That's the easy one to get, is the first film because nobody knows whether you can make a film or not.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Jobs, Trying, Firsts

When you are a beginning film maker you are desperate to survive. The most important thing in the end is survival and being able to get to your next picture.

Topics: Survival, Important, Able

I don't ever see movies by myself. I always see them with other people because I want to know what works. I want to know where they laugh. I want to know where they don't laugh. I want to know what they think about it afterwards because in the end that's what the art that I'm working with is.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". The Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Art, Thinking, People

None of the films I've done was designed for a mass audience, except for 'Indiana Jones.' Nobody in their right mind thought 'American Graffiti' or 'Star Wars' would work.

source: - "George Lucas on 'Star Wars,' 'Fahrenheit 9/11,' and his own legacy". Interview with Steve Silberman, www.wired.com. May 1, 2005.

Topics: Stars, War, Mind, Mind Thoughts

In my experience, there's no such thing as luck.

source: - George Lucas (2011). “A New Hope: Star Wars: Episode IV”, p.120, Del Rey

Topics: Luck, Obi Wan Kenobi, Solo, Star Wars Movie, No Such Thing As Luck

I'm aware that dialogue isn't my strength. I use it as a device. I don't particularly like dialogue which is part of the problem.

source: - "Star Wars archive: George Lucas 1999 interview". Interview with Ian Freer, www.empireonline.com. September 1999.

Topics: Use, Problem, Dialogue

One of the most telling things about film school is you've got a lot of students wandering around saying, "Oh, I wish I could make a movie. I wish I could make a movie."

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Moving, School, Wish, Make A Move, Wandering Around

I'm not in a contest. I make movies. I'm not a racehorse.

Topics: Competition, Racehorses, Contests

Whenever you're making a movie, especially when you're writing, you always have self-doubts.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Writing, Self, Doubt, Self-doubt

When my films don't work it's usually because I tried some very experimental idea. I tried new ideas and they just didn't work, as opposed to trying to do something conventional and having it be so conventional nobody wanted to see it.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". The Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Ideas, Trying, Film

On the professional side, I've helped move cinema from a chemical-based medium to a digital-based medium. That'll be one of the landmarks. And I've left these stories, these little tales that have been imprinted on the media, which will or will not be of interest to people in the future. I've done the best I can.

source: - "Cinematic Phenomenon". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 19, 1999.

Topics: Moving, Media, People

In 3-D filmmaking, I can take images and manipulate them infinitely, as opposed to taking still photographs and laying them one after the other. I move things in all directions. It's such a liberating experience.

Topics: Moving, Photograph, Filmmaking

To be renewed is everything. What more could one ask for than to have one's youth back again?

source: - "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

Topics: Youth, Back Again, Asks

Changes are not unusual - I mean, most movies, when they release them, they make changes. But somehow, when I make the slightest change, everybody thinks it's the end of the world.

source: - "5 Questions With George Lucas: Controversial 'Star Wars' Changes, SOPA and 'Indiana Jones 5'". Interview With Alex Ben Block, www.hollywoodreporter.com. February 9, 2012.

Topics: Mean, Thinking, World

I put all of my resources into pushing the evolution in an industry that is notoriously backwards and I enjoy pushing that envelope,.

Topics: Envelopes, Pushing, Evolution, Pushing The Envelope

One thing about 'Star Wars' that I'm really proud of is that it expands the imagination. That's why I like the 'Star Wars' toys.

Topics: Stars, War, Imagination

I live a reasonably simple life, off the beaten track.

source: - "George Lucas: No, Star Wars is not supposed to be funny" by Emma Brockes, www.theguardian.com. May 16, 2002.

Topics: Simple, Track, Simple Life

I like to say that films are never finished, they're only abandoned.

Topics: Film, Abandoned, Finished

I felt that one of the major issues in the third film is that Luke is finally on his own and has to fight Vader and the Emperor by himself. If you get a sense that Yoda or Ben is there to help him or to somehow influence him, it diminishes the power of the scene.

Topics: Fighting, Issues, Helping, Luke, Vader