Quotes from Milos Forman

I was born in a small town. My parents, my father was a teacher. My mother was a housewife.

Because if you lived, as I did, several years under Nazi totalitarianism, and then 20 years in communist totalitarianism, you would certainly realize how precious freedom is, and how easy it is to lose your freedom.

Communists love to make films about composers, because composers compose music and don't talk subversive things.

I don't think I was ever as fascinated or have had so much respect for anybody like James Cagney.

I get out of the taxi and it's probably the only city which in reality looks better than on the postcards, New York.

You think you can do anything, and then you slowly learn how wrong you are.

In Czechoslovakia, we consider Kafka a very funny man. A humorist.

You know what happened, you know, in 1938: France, England, you know, just sold out Czechoslovakia to Hitler.

I think everybody dreamt somehow to make a film in Hollywood, you know.

Memories are doing funny things to us.

You either have commercial pressure or ideological pressure. I prefer commercial pressure; otherwise, you can be at the mercy of one or two idiots.

I think if I tried very hard, I could do a novel or a play, a poem. I could possibly paint a picture, but I know I can't write music. And still, it is the most accessible of all arts, as you know when you hear a tune.

I don't mind getting involved in a risky project as long as I don't have to stay married to it if the script turns out lousy.

Well, listen, you know, the Czech saying is, you know, when you are drowning you are grabbing even a little twig. That's what all Czechs were doing, grabbing for... with the hope for this little twig.

I can say, with a little arrogance, that I could be an actor, a cameraman, a writer, but composers are the most mysterious people.

People must not think that all bad in man which is unleashed, the moment you impose censorship disappears from man.

Individuals fighting or rebelling against the status quo, the establishment, is good for drama.

And also they were absolutely brilliant in one way, you know: they knew how effective is not to punish somebody who is guilty; what Communist Party members could afford to do was mind-boggling: they could do practically anything they wanted - steal, you know, lie, whatever.

When you make a film, you realize that the audience will be powerless to stop it or flip back to refresh their memories or skip the boring parts. They are at the mercy of your storytelling.

For me, speaking is work. It's not like when you breathe.

First of all, to defend my work, I had to believe that I am doing a totally silly, stupid, innocent comedy.

Milan Kundera was my literature professor. He's a Francophile, so he made us read French novels like 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses,' which I made a version of many years later as 'Valmont.'

Now, after the communist take-over in 1948, the amount of feature films produced dwindled to three a year, while the school was, you know, every year another three, four, five students.

Well, I wouldn't say that this experience had any influence on my decision to do this film about Andy, because Andy was apolitical. Andy was never political.