In their own words

1. “Anybody can direct a picture once they know the fundamentals. Directing is not a mystery, it’s not an art. The main thing is: photograph the people’s eyes.” (John Ford)

2. “Actors can be a terrible bore on the set, though I enjoy having dinner with them.” (Sir David Lean)

3. “Less isn’t more. More is more.” (James Cameron)

4. “We do pander to the audience. But the audience we think about is us.” (The Coen Bros.)

5. “We had access to too much money…and little by little we went insane.” (Francis Ford Coppola)

6. “When people ask me if I went to film school, I tell them, “No, I went to films.” (Quentin Tarantino)

7. “I’m a filmmaker, not a documentarian. I try to hit the truth.” (Sir Ridley Scott)

8. “I think when you’re young and have that first burst of energy, and make five or six pictures in a row that tell the stories of all the things in life you want to say…Well, maybe those are the films that should have won me the Oscar.” (Martin Scorsese)

9. “If you have a story that is very commercial and simple, you have to find the art. You have to take the other elements of the film, and make them as good as possible, and doing that will uplift the film.” (Steven Allan Spielberg)

10. “Telling me to take a vacation from filmmaking is like telling a child to take a vacation from playing.” (Stanley Kubrick)

11. “I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work; I want to achieve it by not dying.” (Woody Allen)

12. “In films painting and literature, theatre and music come together. But a film is still a film.” (Akira Kurosawa)