Ang Lee Quotes

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

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

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

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

I think people are universal.

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

Every movie I make. That’s my hideout, the place I don’t quite understand, but feel most at home.

I think great romance needs great obstacles and textures.

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

Making movies is a way of understanding myself and the world.

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

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

There's a level of sophistication of filmmaking that's mind-boggling. Anything you need for your movie, there's an establishment that can make it happen really fast.

These days I'm mostly familiar with two parts of L.A.: one is movie culture, and the other is Asian culture. The Westside is work, and the Eastside is Chinese - which means my friends.

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

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

Americans are hidden dragons to me.

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

At times I can't help going for visual comfort. Sometimes a picture fills up your head, and you try to move the actors around to make that visual statement.

So many times you see beautiful lovemaking scenes with a lot of exposure or an awkward lovemaking scene, but I think it's very rare that you see it private.

Sexuality is a big issue, but there are others - how much you commit to a relationship, to social obligation, to honesty and being honest with yourself.

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

I wanted to shoot straight, mainstream, somehow off-beat. Not only realistic West, which is quite unfamiliar to the world's population - even to a lot of Americans.

To me, Ennis stands for the conservative side of America. He's the biggest homophobe in the whole movie - culturally and psychologically - but by the time he admits his feelings, it's too late.

On a Chinese film you just give orders, no one questions you. Here, you have to convince people, you have to tell them why you want to do it a certain way, and they argue with you. Democracy.

As artists, we like night more than day sometimes.

So I'm a one movie at a time person, I don't develop. Normally we do a movie then one thing leads to another. If something pops up that catches my attention, then I'll decide.

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

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

The most mysterious feminine factor, the existence that we men, we don't know. It's woman. It's feminine. That's what the sword is about. That's the symbolic meaning of the sword.

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

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.

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

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

Meanwhile, the Ice Storm was still in development, And that was something I really wanted to do, and frankly I don't think I was ready to do a big production like this.

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

When I have a full schedule like that, I don't see myself sitting there for a couple of months, doing the research, going through a painful process, it's just not my thing anymore.

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

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

When you talk about God, the first thing that comes along is not love, it's fear. You have to fear, and be in awe. You have to be scared. Any religion, it's like first thing.

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

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

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

I like to go back to Chinese film-making from time to time. I don't think I can make Chinese films back to back; it's such a big effort. I'd have to take a very long break.

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

Usually with this genre the first thing that happens is a good fight sequence to show that you're in good hands. So we broke that rule. I think a lot of that comes from the western audience.

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.

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