Quotes from George A. Romero

There are very few horror films that I think are worth their salt.

The horror films that I've made have been satirical in one way or another or political, and I really think that's the purpose of horror. I don't see that happening very often.

When I was growing up, I actually went through, in New York City, blackouts when we had to close the windows and worry about air raids. I don't know whether or not those were realistic worries or not, but as a kid, when we all had to run around pulling down the drapes and turning the lights off; it was a very frightening experience.

I didn't much care for the 'Dawn' remake. It was a well-made action movie but really wasn't anything like my 'Dawn Of The Dead.'

If I fail, the film industry writes me off as another statistic. If I succeed, they pay me a million bucks to fly out to Hollywood and fart.

As a filmmaker you get typecast just as much as an actor does, so I'm trapped in a genre that I love, but I'm trapped in it!

I do think of my films as morality plays, even though my reputation is, you know, splatter films and like that. But I think of them as very moral.

Pittsburgh, for a while, became a production centre. There was one $400 million year. Hollywood was bringing productions in there. Films like 'The Silence of the Lambs' and 'Innocent Blood.' So my guys, the guys I worked with, were able to have careers and live at home. But then it dried up, and a lot of my friends left.

I want 'Dawn' to play like a cowboys and Indians movie.

You just wish you could lobotomize yourself and just do a thing that's really on instinct. There's always a certain self-consciousness. And you worry about that.

When I was old enough to go to movies alone, I got to see 'Frankenstein' and 'Dracula' on the big screen. I just fell in love with them.

I've seen so many young filmmakers - even professional filmmakers who get a Hollywood deal - they don't quite know where to begin, where to end, and they'll waste a lot of time making this perfect shot, an establishing shot, and then there's no time left to shoot the dialogue.

People say you're trapped in this genre. You're a horror guy. I say wait a minute - I'm able to say exactly what I think. I'm able to talk about, comment about, take snapshots of what's going on at the time. I don't feel trapped. I feel like this is my way of being able to express myself.

Somehow I've been able to keep standing and stay in my little corner and do my little stuff and I'm not particularly affected by trends or I'm not dying to make a 3D movie or anything like that. I'm just sort of happy to still be around.

I don't like the new trends in horror. All this torture stuff seems really mean-spirited. People have forgotten how to laugh, and I don't see anybody who's using it as allegory.

After 'Land,' I wanted to do something about emerging media and citizen journalism, so I got this idea for 'Diary of the Dead.'

For a Catholic kid in parochial school, the only way to survive the beatings - by classmates, not the nuns - was to be the funny guy.

Movies are about escape.

The guy that made me wanna make movies... and this is off the wall-is a guy named Michael Pal, the British director.

As great as Ed is, the wisdom out here is that he can't carry a movie. They'll pay him $3 million to be the second banana in Julia Roberts things. But they won't put up $3 million for an Ed Harris movie.

People called '28 Days' and '28 Weeks' zombie movies, and they're not! It's some sort of virus they're not dead.

Ever since 'Lassie' and 'Old Yeller', I won't watch animal movies. Animals in movies always die.

My stories are about humans and how they react, or fail to react, or react stupidly. I'm pointing the finger at us, not at the zombies. I try to respect and sympathize with the zombies as much as possible.

On the other side of that coin, and far outweighing it, is the fact that I've been able to use genre of Fantasy/Horror and express my opinion, talk a little about society, do a little bit of satire and that's been great, man. A lot of people don't have that platform.