“Some days I’d like to be stupid and ugly. I only meet guys who want to paw me. Never anyone I can just talk to. I think it’s a shame… that nine times out of ten, when a guy talks to a girl… he’s got another thought in mind.” ‘A Summer’s Tale’, directed by Éric…

“I was continuing to shrink, to become… what? The infinitesimal? What was I? Still a human being? Or was I the man of the future? If there were other bursts of radiation, other clouds drifting across seas and continents, would other beings follow me into this vast new world? So close – the infinitesimal and…

“There are three types of people in this world: sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs. Some people prefer to believe that evil doesn’t exist in the world, and if it ever darkened their doorstep, they wouldn’t know how to protect themselves. Those are the sheep.” ‘American Sniper’, directed by Clint Eastwood in 2014, is an American biopic…

“I don’t know if you’d be particularly interested in hearing anything about me. My life, I mean… Most of it doesn’t add up to much that I could relate as a way of life that you’d approve of… I’d like to be able to tell you why, but I don’t really… I mean, I move…

“That’s just what this country needs: a cock in a frock on a rock. ” ‘The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert’, directed by Stephan Elliott in 1994, is an Australian road movie and part of a cycle of films that included ‘Strictly Ballroom’ and ‘Muriel’s Wedding’ that made Australian cinema distinctive in the…

“Well, there are more ways than one of getting close to your ancestors. Follow the old road, and as you walk, think of them and of the old England. They climbed Chillingbourne Hill, just as you. They sweated and paused for breath just as you did today. And when you see the bluebells in the…

‘Shh’ ‘Film’, directed by Alan Schneider and written by Samuel Beckett in 1965, is an American short movie, the only film written by the Irish avant-garde playwright. A man, played appropriately silently by Buster Keaton, is followed by a pursuing camera from the streets of New York into an apartment block. His face for the…

“Twelve people go off into a room: twelve different minds, twelve different hearts, from twelve different walks of life; twelve sets of eyes, ears, shapes, and sizes. And these twelve people are asked to judge another human being as different from them as they are from each other. And in their judgment, they must become…

“He who has two women loses his soul. He who has two houses loses his mind,” ‘Full Moon in Paris’, directed by Éric Rohmer in 1984, is a French romantic drama starring Pascale Ogier as Louise, an affluent young woman who is dating and living with a tennis star called Rémi in the suburbs of…

“Don’t forget, a great impression of simplicity can only be achieved by great agony of body and spirit.” ‘The Red Shoes’, directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger in 1948, is a British romantic drama starring  Moira Shearer, Marius Goring and Anton Walbrook. Shearer plays Vicky Page, an aspiring ballerina who bewitches two men: Boris…

“There once was a drummer. His name was Oskar. He lost his poor mama, who had eat to much fish. There was once a credulous people… who believed in Santa Claus. But Santa Claus was really… the gas man! There was once a toy merchant. His name was Sigismund Markus… and he sold tin drums…

“Well, if some people get upset because they feel they have a hold on some things, I’m merely acting as a gentle reminder: here today, gone tomorrow, so don’t get attached to things now. With that in mind, I’m not against collecting stuff.” ‘Harold and Maude’, directed by Hal Ashby in 1971, is a dark,…

“I have to show you something: “Prison Conditions for Subversive Artists: Based on Character Profile”. Pretty scientific, eh? And look at this: “Dissertation Supervisor, A. Grubitz”. That’s great, isn’t it? I only gave him a B. They shouldn’t think getting a doctorate with me is easy. But his is first-class. Did you know that there…

“There are drunks lying everywhere! The state should do something. It’s the same everywhere. In Helsinki recently, there were so many drunks lying around even though it’s hard to get alcohol in Finland.” ‘Fox and his Friends’, directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder in 1975, is a German drama starring the director as a naïve, semi-literate…

“Your followers are deluded enough to trust you. I intend that you shall speak to them tomorrow for their own good, their peaceful and profitable future. From time to time thereafter, I may find it useful to bring you back to Rome to continue your duty to her, to calm the envious spirit and the…

“When he told me a few years ago what he was, everything went to pot. I didn’t care what happened to me. Now I remember how nice he once was, how nice we both were. It’s a very curious feeling, a feeling as if something had happened to me, not to him. You see I…

“You take the trouble to construct a civilization, to build a society based on the principles of… of principle. You make government and art and realize that they are, must be, both the same. You bring things to the saddest of all points, to the point where there is something to lose. Then, all at…

“There was a demon that lived in the air. They said whoever challenged him would die. Their controls would freeze up, their planes would buffet wildly, and they would disintegrate. The demon lived at Mach 1 on the meter, seven hundred and fifty miles an hour, where the air could no longer move out of…

(On watching ‘Henry – Portrait of a Serial Killer) “I wandered around the city for hours trying to remember who was it that said good things about this film. I read a review in a paper. I read something positive about “Henry”. Suddenly, I remember… I find the review and I copy it in my…

“You know that, after the war, we had very bad years in Germany. We got poorer and poorer. Every day retired officers or schoolteachers were caught shoplifting. Money lost its value, the price of everything rose except of human beings. We read in the newspapers that the after-war years were bad everywhere, that crime was…

“There’s nothing in your head that you haven’t said!” ‘Force Majeure’, directed by Ruben Östlund in 2014, is a Swedish domestic drama. A businessman called Tomas, Johannes Bah Kuhnke, is spending the week skiing with his family: his wife Ebba, played by Lisa Loven Kongsli, and his two children. One lunchtime, they are outside on…

“I was just thinking what an interesting concept it is to eliminate the writer from the artistic process. If we could just get rid of these actors and directors, maybe we’ve got something here.” ‘The Player’, directed by Robert Altman in 1992, is an American satire on Hollywood. Tim Robbins plays Griffin Mill, a studio…

“Do you think there’s someplace where we can meet that’s not in silence and not in sound?” ‘Children of a Lesser God’, directed by Randa Haines in 1986, is an American romantic drama set in a school for the deaf in New England. James Leeds, played by William Hurt, is a new and charismatic teacher…

“This was Josef Stalin. He was a communist, I was not too crazy about him, had a bad moustache, lot of bad habits. This is Bela Lugosi. He was, he was the mayor of New York City for a while, you can see what it did to him there, you know. This is, uhm, this…

“Be careful! You dream of writing a mature work, but your charm lies in your thorough immaturity. You dream of setting fire to God knows what, of rising above your times like a dazzling cloud, leaving everyone terrified and admiring. But you weren’t born for that, Pierre! You don’t even believe it yourself.” ‘Pola X’,…

“I’m a schoolteacher. I teach English composition… in this little town called Adley, Pennsylvania. The last eleven years, I’ve been at Thomas Alva Edison High School. I was a coach of the baseball team in the springtime. Back home, I tell people what I do for a living and they think well, now that figures….

“I seek your lips and you give me your cheek. And the door to your room has been locked to me for more than a month. I used to be welcome there. I often lie awake, thinking of you. I’ve thought you might be in love with someone else and I’ve wondered who it could…

“I’m going to improvise. Listen, there’s something you should know about me… about inception. An idea is like a virus, resilient, highly contagious. The smallest seed of an idea can grow. It can grow to define or destroy you.” ‘Inception’, directed by Christopher Nolan in 2010, is an American science fiction movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio…

“For instance, there was this Turkish guy once. He fucked up and owed Milo some money. So I went over to his place. I’d been there many times before, asking for the money in a polite way, without any luck. Finally, I took a knife, stabbed it in his kneecap and teared the shit up….

“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive…