Quotes from Sidney Lumet

For any director with a little lucidity, masterpieces are films that come to you by accident.

All good work requires self-revelation.

I don't know how to choose work that illuminates what my life is about. I don't know what my life is about and don't examine it. My life will define itself as I live it. The movies will define themselves as I make them. As long as the theme is something I care about at the moment, it's enough for me to start work. Maybe work itself is what my life is about.

In drama, the characters should determine the story. In melodrama, the story determines the characters.

All great work is preparing yourself for the accident to happen.

But he meant beauty in the sense of its organic connection to the material. And this is the connection that, for me, separates true stylists from decorators. The decorators are easy to recognize. That's why critics love them so.

The word 'actress' or 'authoress' always struck me as condescending. A doctor's a doctor, right? So I've always referred to 'actors' and 'writers,' regardless of their sex.

don't know what my life is about and don't examine it. My life will define itself as I live it. The movies will define themselves as I make them.

The varying physical characteristics of the actors may also necessitate changes. Sean Connery is six feet four. Dustin Hoffman isn't.

The basic 110-volt AC power line moves the electrons at 60 cycles. If a transformer is close to the power source (and all speakers have transformers), the 60 cycles produce an audible hum. Crackling, caused by dirt on the sound head, can also be heard.

Dolby was in the driver's seat. "Surround Sound" was added. Now we had three speakers behind the screen, two more on the left side of the theater, and two on the right. A closely guarded secret about all this is that you hear the correct balance only if you're sitting in the center of the theater. On the left or right side, those speakers tend to dominate.

For any director with a little lucidity, masterpieces are films that come to you by accident.

Life has a cruel way of balancing pleasure with pain. To make up for the joy of seeing Sophia Loren every morning, God punishes the director with the mix.

When I began making movies, the only crew jobs available to women were as script girls and in the editing department. As a result, I still think of movie crews as male. And in fact, they still predominantly are.

Like all boses—and on set, I'm the boss—I'm the boss only up to a point.

Sometimes, on particularly good takes, I'm so moved that I stop "doing" the scene and just watch in awe at the miracle of good acting. As I said earlier, that's life up there. When it flows like that, that's when I say "Print.

All great work is preparing yourself for the accident to happen.

There are no minor decisions in movie making. Each decision will either contribute to a good piece of work or bring the whole movie crashing down around my head many months later.

The nature of the work is to prepare for a good accident .

Work is my norm. I have mad energy, insane energy, a kind of stamina in terms of work that's a little crazy.

There are no personal revelations other than feelings arising from the work itself

It's art. It's commerce. It's heartbreaking and it's fun. It's a great way to live.