Quotes from Michael Mann

Could I have worked under a system where there were Draconian controls on my creativity, meaning budget, time, script choices, etc.? Definitely not. I would have fared poorly under the old studio system that guys like Howard Hawks did so well in. I cannot.

HBO is not an advertiser-based model, it's a subscription model. So what's significant to HBO is not necessarily the debut of an episode, it's the cumulative numbers.

I think it's easy for directors to stay fresh more than actors, especially once an actor becomes a star. It's hard for Russell Crowe to walk down a street or take a subway. I can fly coach.

Music is always key to me, whether it's 'Miami Vice' or not 'Miami Vice.' It's dictated by the story, about what Crockett and Tubbs and Isabella and Trudy are doing.

Video looks like reality, it's more immediate, it has a verite surface to it. Film has this liquid kind of surface, feels like something made up.

I think the resolution involved in the high-def, Blu-ray image demands we pay attention to every detail to a level we've never seen before. The audiences have to believe everything they're seeing. As viewers, we're all so experienced and so much smarter than we realize. With Blu-ray, there will be less tricking of the eye.

In 'The Insider,' I had violence - lethal, life-taking aggression - all happening psychologically, all with people talking to other people.

Di tanto in tanto spegneva i fari, come aveva fatto quella sera, guidando con l'eccitazione di poter finire in una cunetta a cento all'ora. Cosa cercava? Da cosa fuggiva? […] Non aveva mai trovato una risposta, perché non esisteva. L'azione di buttare fuori e rincorrere era diventata naturale, per lui. Rincorrere una sequenza di dati ignoti, fino alla sua origine in posti oscuri e selvaggi, o nell'anonimato di cemento dei paesaggi cittadini, era quell'azione che lo motivava.

You stay alive, no matter what occurs! I will find you. No matter how long it takes, no matter how far, I will find you.

Miami is one of these great places that is a really sensual, physically beautiful place.