Quotes About Film

'Do the Right Thing' has been a big influence on me. I saw it when it first came out in 1989. I was about 18, and it blew me away on many levels - I had never seen anything like it before.

When you look at all of the male characters on television and in film, it's not like every one of them are the people doing the right thing that you can point to as your own moral compass. We need to have all kinds of characters represented.

I have two little black boys. And a film like 'Do the Right Thing' can help illuminate the times for them with great storytelling.

In 'Maatr,' we do not justify taking the law into our hands. That's not the right thing to do. We are not promoting that.

It is mind-blowing to pause and think that a film as forward-facing and potent as 'Do the Right Thing' was released the same year as 'Driving Ms. Daisy.'

I always say film is art, theater is life and television is furniture.

The difference - the fundamental difference between theater acting and film acting is that film acting is disjunctive.

Live television drama was like live theater, because you moved without thinking about the camera. It followed you around. In film you have to be more aware of what the camera is doing.

Well, all I can say is thank goodness I had 15 years of theater before ever I did film roles. You build technique that you can rely on.

I've always loved film more than theater.

Theater is far superior to film in poetry, in abstract poetry.

The great thing about theater is that you have so much time to prepare, and to fail, before presenting it to the public. In film, the high-wire act seems to be that much farther up, and the net seems to be less there.

I believe that the story is the most important element of any medium whether it's theater, film, TV.

When you're on TV, you come into people's homes. In theater and film, they go to you - to the temple of the cinema or theater. And it's very different.

I think film is a world of directors. Theater is a world of actors.

You can work really hard on your physicality, on your craft, on the films you do. You can choose the best of directors, the best of productions, get the best technicians, you can put your entire body and soul into the making of a film, but at the end of the day, it all depends on the mood of that one audience member that goes into that theater.

I love theater - it's where every actor should begin, the core of acting. But I feel that there's something about film that's captivating; it takes you to another , and you get to really be so connected with it.

Well, in the theater, I think you're actually more responsible for what is going on onstage as a director than you are in film.

Once I went to film school, I realized that film directing was actually much better than theater directing, because you kind of get to stay in control of it all the way through. You don't relinquish the piece to the actors like you have to in theater; you stay in control through the very end.

The beauty of film is that you can get closer than you can in theater, you know? I come from theater, and I remember feeling like I was almost cheating when I would put the camera so close to somebody's face when I was filming them.

The language of film is further and further away from the language of theater and is closer to music. It's abstract but still narrative.

I don't believe there is something called 'film' and something called 'theater,' and that words belong in the theater. Some rather bad films have few words in them; some good films have a lot of words in them.

The whole film genre is one of deceit. It is the suspension of disbelief. That's what all theater and all film is based on.

My only close-to-game-plan is to follow good writing. If the writing is in TV or if it's in theater or in film, that's it. It doesn't really matter what the medium is.