Quotes from John Cassavetes

I won't call my work entertainment. It's exploring. It's asking questions of people, constantly. 'How much do you feel? How much do you know? Are you aware of this? Can you cope with this?' A good movie will ask you questions you don't already know the answers to. Why would I want to make a film about something I already understand?

Filmmaking is exploring. Why would I want to make a film about something I already understand?

You can fail in films because you don't have the talent, or you have too much humility, or you lack ferociousness. I'm a gangster. If I want something, I'll grab it.

I won't make shorthand films, because I don't want to manipulate audiences into assuming quick, manufactured truths.

You know as a director what you want, but the film is smarter than you, the film says no, the film says there's something more here.

The most difficult thing in the world is to reveal yourself, to express what you have to. As an artist, I feel that we must try many things - but above all we must dare to fail. You must be willing to risk everything to really express it all.

Everyone who makes a film is at the major distributors' mercy.

My mother and father were never frightened of anything. They always felt that they should go through life happily and without fear, and they did that. And it was a great boon to my brother and myself.

The idea of love as a mysterious, undiscovered world has come to have no place in our innermost imagination.

I'm a great believer in spontaneity because I think planning is the most destructive thing in the world.

I think I probably have the philosophy of a poor man. You know, like maybe I'd steal the pennies off a dead man's eyes.

There is no reason why a serious film, one about life, can't be enjoyable, maybe even fun. Emotions can be very entertaining, you know. I try to use them generously in my films.

I think people are very stiff. Money makes people stiff, and we want it, and we have to pay the penalty. I never agreed with stiffness. I think people have an understanding of what their life is. I define success by being a realist and not humiliating people. I'm a revolutionary - but not in the political sense.

I have a one-track mind. That's all that I'm interested in - love. And the lack of it. When it stops.

An artist can accomplish anything provided he doesn't accept facts or defeat for more than a few minutes.

I don't care about being on top, about being No. 1. I just make movies for a few suckers in the audience, anyway.

I hate entertainment.