Quotes from Vilmos Zsigmond

The best way to know when there's good lighting is when you don't notice it.

As the cinematographer is usually more visual than the director is and full cooperation is really the answer and to make a great film, you need a good director and you need a good cinematographer.

I'm always looking for directors who are very strong, they have great ideas, but on the other hand, that need help. It means they rely mostly on my eyes.

I hope that film is going to stay as an artform and that people won't forget that there are good movies also to be made.

I think too many film students in America are losing the artistry and not learning lighting the right way.

I'm always looking in the lighting to tell the story in a different way than it actually looks in real life because it's, for me, more contrast sometimes has to mean it's softer than normal.

When I first came to America there still was Look Magazine and LIFE Magazine, and the photography in those magazines was amazing to look at. They had the best portraits, and their news photography.

I look at a picture like Scarecrow and think, 'Jesus, how could they have let us make that?' I mean, if you used technology that old nowadays, it would look like old Hollywood.

You used to feed a piece of celluloid into an editor. [Digital] is not expensive and that is an advantage, but I must say that I don't love it.

I don't know the American photographers as well, but I admit I love Ansel Adams. His landscapes are so crisp.

I love to make movies about young people - young scientists that are inventing things and all the writing they did was very funny and very true.

I love Woody Allen. He's very clever, always thinking, and he's great with actors. He lets actors do what they want to do and occasionally he'll give them a specific kind of direction.

I am actually retired - yes, I am retired. But I like to work. So I'm retired until someone calls me up to work.

If you do not bother to take the time to compose and to light properly, then you end up with something almost less than reality. You end up without the soul, the heart, the art of the moment.

When I do a still picture, I'm doing it all by myself with no help. I'm designing everything. I am my own art director. I'm doing everything. I'm directing, editing, whatever.

Each story has a different approach for me and I try to work with lighting that will tell you visually the story better than if it was shot in available light.

I had never met Woody Allen before Melinda and Melinda. My agent knew the producer of the movie and he suggested that we would work well together and then we did. We had a great time on that film.

There are, of course, many, many, many good cinematographers and unfortunately they don't work as much as many of those people who do those crazy, stupid movies.

I really like to work with people who know a lot, but they also give me space so I can add something to the movie.