Quotes from Kathryn Bigelow

My movement from painting to film was a very conscious one.

You only have so much money to shoot a movie with.

I'm definitely not drawn to shooting on a stage, I'm just not.

I like to be strong.

I really look for peak experiences and dramatic material that can allow peak experiences.

I've always developed all my own pieces, and they're time-consumers.

I suppose I like to think of myself as a film-maker.

I can't change my gender, and I refuse to stop making movies.

If there's specific resistance to women making movies, I just choose to ignore that as an obstacle for two reasons: I can't change my gender, and I refuse to stop making movies.

I'm interested in social commentary.

There's really no difference between what I do and what a male filmmaker might do. I mean we all try to make our days, we all try to give the best performances we can, we try to make our budget, we try to make the best movie we possibly can.

One of the elements in the film that really fascinated me was not to look at the world in bi-polar terms of us vs them or east vs west, which was a by-product of the Cold War.

I began to exercise a lot of cinematic muscle with the precepts I had learned in the New York art world. Film was intriguing. I began to think of art as elitist; film was not.

When I made my first film, I didn't think of it as directing, so it wasn't like I set out to become a director.

I do have to say I have been very fortunate.

You have to disengage at some point in order to be fresh.

Perhaps the only thing in my favor is that I am very tenacious. I don't take 'no' very well.

I don't know if I thrive in normal life.

Character and emotionality don't always have to be relegated to quieter, more simple constructs.

I don't do what I do to try and break a glass ceiling.

I realised that there's a more muscular approach to film-making that I found very inspiring.

When James Cameron brought me the script, which I developed with both Cameron and Jay Cocks, I wanted to make it a thriller, an action film, but with a conscience, and I found that it had elements of social realism.

It's totally thrilling to direct.

I thrive on production. It feels very much like a natural environment for me.