For ‚Star Wars‘ I had to develop a whole new idea about special effects to give it the kind of kinetic energy I was looking for. I did it with motion-control photography.

I loved the material when I first read it, and the experience of making the film was a great one. So when we came around to complete the trilogy, I just signed on board without even reading the scripts because the experience of the first film was so good.

When I make a film – I direct my own film, I write my own script – that’s what I want to hear from the audience. ‚Oh, thank you, Jackie!‘

You are always hoping that movie audiences are interested in characters and interested in story values rather than just mindless special effects. But you never know.

I thought Star Wars was too wacky for the general public.

When you are a beginning film maker you are desperate to survive. The most important thing in the end is survival and being able to get to your next picture.

A special effect is a tool, a means of telling a story. A special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing.

The story being told in ‚Star Wars‘ is a classic one. Every few hundred years, the story is retold because we have a tendency to do the same things over and over again. Power corrupts, and when you’re in charge, you start doing things that you think are right, but they’re actually not.

Sometimes when you make a film you can go away for three months and then come back and live your life. But this struck a much deeper chord. I don’t have the ability yet to speak about it in an objective.

I’ve choreographed all of my movies.

I played with two lines of action figures when I was a kid: G.I. Joe and Star Wars.

When I was making ‚Star Wars,‘ I wasn’t restrained by any kind of science. I simply said, ‚I’m going to create a world that’s fun and interesting, makes sense, and seems to have a reality to it.‘

One thing about ‚Star Wars‘ that I’m really proud of is that it expands the imagination. That’s why I like the ‚Star Wars‘ toys.

Making a film is like putting out a fire with sieve. There are so many elements, and it gets so complicated.

I kind of make a film for myself to sort of express myself.

None of the films I’ve done was designed for a mass audience, except for ‚Indiana Jones.‘ Nobody in their right mind thought ‚American Graffiti‘ or ‚Star Wars‘ would work.

It was the money from ‚Star Wars‘ and ‚Jaws‘ that allowed the theaters to build their multiplexes, which allowed an opening up of screens.

I want to play a fireman and a spy. I want to learn special effects.

My wish is to bring my heroes to the big screen, and many of them have already appeared in my films.

I accept the Old Testament as more of an action movie: blood, car chases, evacuations, a lot of special effects, seas dividing, mass murder, adultery. The children of God are running amok, wayward. Maybe that’s why they’re so relatable.

The skin of my character in ‚The Man Who Fell to Earth‘ was some concoction, a spermatozoon of an alien nature that was obscene and weird-looking.

‚Star Wars‘ is fun, its exciting, its inspirational, and people respond to that. It’s what they want.