Quotes from William Friedkin

I really think that sex always looks kind of funny in a movie.

I tend to be attracted to characters who are up against a wall with very few alternatives. And the film then becomes an examination of how they cope with very few options. And that's, I guess, what interests me in terms of human behavior.

The first work of the director is to set a mood so that the actor's work can take place, so that the actor can create. And in order to do that, you have to communicate, communicate with the actors. And direction is about communication on all levels.

The thing that interests me is the good and evil in everybody. I don't have conventional heroes in the films that I directed, because I believe there's good and evil in everybody.

The art of movies is to allow the audience to suspend their disbelief. They need to use their imaginations.

Technique is of less interest than character and story.

The informing idea of what you want to say and do, that's what will take you from film school to professional - the idea. That's what is original to you.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I feel pressed and tense almost every day of my life about something or other. And I think it's the one thing, as I look into people's eyes, that I think I share with almost everybody.

If you're a movie star, the studios don't want you to act. They just want you to show up and look good and chase girls and have a lot of laughs.

The digital process gives me total control over how I want the film to look. The films look like they did when I was first looking through the viewfinder.

The first work of the director is to set a mood so that the actor's work can take place, so that the actor can create. And in order to do that, you have to communicate, communicate with the actors. And direction is about communication on all levels.

Star Wars is one of a handful of films that changed the zeitgeist forever.

If Star Wars had failed, you wouldn't have 90 percent of what's out there today.

'Star Wars' gave birth to all the computer-generated superhero films.

Style is something that's extremely important, but it must grow naturally out of who and what you are and what the material calls for. It cannot be superimposed.

I have seen lampoons of my work. And I have really enjoyed them. But I would never do another version of The Exorcist.

There are many untalented people making millions of dollars in the film business.

Violence is not funny.