Kathryn Bigelow Quotes:

With each project, I'm going for something that makes viewers think, 'Wow, I've never seen a film like this before,' and later think, 'Wow, I've only seen a film like this once before. I saw it in theaters and am watching it now on Netflix or a similar streaming service.'

Topics: Thinking, Netflix, Wow, Streaming

If there's specific resistance to women making movies, I just choose to ignore that as an obstacle for two reasons: I can't change my gender, and I refuse to stop making movies.

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

Topics: Movie, Inspiring, Two, Directing Movies, Film Directors

I'm drawn to filmmaking that can transport me. Film can immerse you, put you there.

Topics: Film, Filmmaking, Transport

Those of us who work in the arts know that depiction is not endorsement. If it was, no artist would be able to paint inhumane practices, no author could write about them, and no filmmaker could delve into the thorny subjects of our time.

source: - "Kathryn Bigelow addresses 'Zero Dark Thirty' torture criticism". articles.latimes.com. January 15, 2013|.

Topics: Art, Writing, Practice, Inhumane

Cinema has the capacity to be so physiological.

Topics: Cinema, Capacity, Physiological

I need to have my hands on the DNA of a film.

source: - “Action Heroine” by Karen Durbin, www.elle.com. June 10, 2009.

Topics: Dna, Hands, Needs

You never think the universe will reward your first choice - it just doesnt work like that.

Topics: Thinking, Choices, Rewards

I began to exercise a lot of cinematic muscle with the precepts I had learned in the New York art world. Film was intriguing. I began to think of art as elitist; film was not.

source: - "'I like to be strong'". Interview with Stuart Jeffries, www.theguardian.com. October 21, 2002.

Topics: Art, New York, Exercise, Cinematic, Art World

The journey for women, no matter what venue it is - politics, business, film - it's, it's a long journey.

Topics: Journey, Long, Matter, Long Journey

Our film examines the heroism, courage and prowess of the Soviet submarine force in ways never seen before.

Topics: Heroism, Submarines, Way, Prowess

I thrive on production. It feels very much like a natural environment for me.

Topics: Environment, Natural, Thrive

I think violence in a cinematic context can be, if handled in a certain way, very seductive.

Topics: Thinking, Seductive, Way, Cinematic

My dad used to draw these great cartoon figures. His dream was being a cartoonist, but he never achieved it, and it kind of broke my heart. I think part of my interest in art had to do with his yearning for something he could never have.

Topics: Dream, Art, Dad, Yearning For Something

There's a conventional reaction when you see a star: You anticipate he'll be a part of a particular denouement down the road, so you don't worry for that character.

Topics: Stars, Character, Worry, Denouement

My movement from painting to film was a very conscious one.

Topics: Movement, Painting, Film

There should be more women directing; I think there's just not the awareness that it's really possible.

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

Topics: Thinking, Awareness, Should

What's most galvanizing for me is the opportunity to be topical and relevant and entertaining. That's the holy grail.

Topics: Opportunity, Holy Grail, Relevant

I'm definitely not drawn to shooting on a stage, I'm just not.

Topics: Shooting, Stage

There will come a time when the world will look back to modern vivisection in the name of science, as they do now to burning at the stake in the name of religion.

Topics: Animal, Names, Looks, Animal Testing, Burning At The Stake

I suppose I like to think of myself as a film-maker.

Topics: Thinking, Film, Makers

I really look for peak experiences and dramatic material that can allow peak experiences.

Topics: Looks, Dramatic, Peak Experiences

I realised that there's a more muscular approach to film-making that I found very inspiring.

Topics: Film, Found, Very Inspiring

I'm drawn to provocative characters that find themselves in extreme situations. And I think I'm drawn to that consistently.

Topics: Character, Thinking, Provocative

I don't want to be made pacified or made comfortable. I like stuff that gets your adrenaline going.

source: - "Kathryn Bigelow: 'Zero Dark Thirty' has no agenda". Interview with Rohit Vats, www.news18.com. January 17, 2013.

Topics: Want, Stuff, Made, Adrenaline Rush

One should make morals judgements for oneself.

Topics: Judgement, Moral, Should, Judgemental

On the other hand, I believe there's hope, because the breakdown and the repair are happening simultaneously.

Topics: Believe, Hands, I Believe

For some individuals - some soldiers, some contractors - combat provides a kind of purpose and meaning beyond which all else potentially pales in comparison.

Topics: Soldier, Purpose, Kind, Contractor, Purpose And Meaning

Am I a 'woman of action'? I don't think of myself that way.

Topics: Thinking, Way, Action

Character and emotionality don't always have to be relegated to quieter, more simple constructs.

Topics: Character, Simple, Directors

I can't stand outside myself and be anybody else.

I did a pilot for Anything But Love in 1988 that didn't sell.

Topics: Pilots

I do have to say I have been very fortunate.

I don't believe in censorship in any form.

Topics: Believe, Censorship, Form

I don't do what I do to try and break a glass ceiling.

Topics: Glasses, Trying, Ceilings, Glass Ceiling

I don't know if I thrive in normal life.

Topics: Normal, Normal Life, Thrive

I like high impact movies.

Topics: Impact

The Communist regime didn't consider this to be a shining moment in history and assigned no heroism to it. They classified it as merely an accident.

Topics: Shining, Heroism, Moments, Shining Down

It's irrelevant who or what directed a movie; the important thing is that you either respond to it or you don't.

source: - "Kathryn Bigelow discusses role of "seductive violence" in her films". Interview with Michelle P. Perry, tech.mit.edu. March 16, 1990.

Topics: Important, Irrelevant

I'm interested in social commentary.

Topics: Social

Films don't cause violence, people do. Violence defines our existence. To shield oneself is more dangerous than trying to reflect it.

Topics: Movie, People, Trying

There's really no difference between what I do and what a male filmmaker might do. I mean we all try to make our days, we all try to give the best performances we can, we try to make our budget, we try to make the best movie we possibly can.

Topics: Mean, Differences, Giving

Perhaps the only thing in my favor is that I am very tenacious. I don't take 'no' very well.

source: - "Q&A: Filming a War of Bombs in The Hurt Locker". Interview with Julian Sancton, www.vanityfair.com. July 8, 2009.

Topics: Favors, Wells

Whereas painting is a more rarefied art form, with a limited audience, I recognized film as this extraordinary social tool that could reach tremendous numbers of people.

Topics: Art, Numbers, People

War's dirty little secret is that some men love it.

source: - "Kathryn Bigelow Talks About 'The Hurt Locker'" by Jennie Yabroff, www.newsweek.com. June 18, 2009.

Topics: War, Dirty, Men

I can't change my gender, and I refuse to stop making movies.

Topics: Gender, Refuse

If there's specific resistance to women making movies, I just choose to ignore that as an obstacle for two reasons: I can't change my gender, and I refuse to stop making movies. It's irrelevant who or what directed a movie, the important thing is that you either respond to it or you don't. There should be more women directing; I think there's just not the awareness that it's really possible. It is.

Topics: Thinking, Two, Important

I choose material instinctually - at the heart of it are characters that I feel are fresh and original, and allow for an opportunity to, I suppose, explore uncharted ground.

Topics: Heart, Character, Opportunity, Uncharted

My criteria for doing a television series never changed. I wanted more stability, I wanted more of a sense of family, I wanted to do light comedy.

Topics: Light, Television, Comedy

One of the elements in the film that really fascinated me was not to look at the world in bi-polar terms of us vs them or east vs west, which was a by-product of the Cold War.

Topics: War, East, Looks

I'd love to just think of myself as a filmmaker, and I wait for the day when the modifier can be a moot point.

source: - "Bigelow Backstage: ‘Don’t Give Up’" by Steve Pond, www.thewrap.com. March 7, 2010.

Topics: Thinking, Waiting, Filmmaker

I have always firmly believed that every director should be judged solely by their work, and not by their work based on their gender. Hollywood is supposedly a community of forward thinking and progressive people yet this horrific situation for women directors persists. Gender discrimination stigmatizes our entire industry. Change is essential. Gender neutral hiring is essential.

source: - "Kathryn Bigelow: We Must End Gender Discrimination in Hollywood". time.com. May 12, 2015.

Topics: Thinking, Gender Gap, People, Forward Thinking, Gender Discrimination

Something becomes personal when it deviates from the norm.

Topics: Norm, Deviate

I always want to make films. I think of it as a great opportunity to comment on the world in which we live. Perhaps just because I just came off "The Hurt Locker" (2008) and I'm thinking of the war and I think it's a deplorable situation. It's a great medium in which to speak about that. This is a war that cannot be won, why are we sending troops over there? Well, the only medium I have, the only opportunity I have, is to use film. There will always be issues I care about.

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

Topics: Hurt, War, Opportunity, Hurt Locker

When I made my first film, I didn't think of it as directing, so it wasn't like I set out to become a director.

Topics: Thinking, Directors, Firsts