Yes, I’m always – I’m always surprised when you make a film and you live with it a while and you put it out, you never dream that anybody is ever going to want to really see it.

The moment people feel they know what to expect from you, your spell on them is broken. More: You have ceded them power.

On ‚Mystic River,‘ I had to cut my salary and everyone else’s to get it made.

People are always coming up to me and saying, ‚I heard your dad’s speech, and it’s really great.‘ And they’ll mention some place I didn’t even know my dad was going to.

What we need to understand is that when traditions become laws, rules, obligations and expectations others put on us that we don’t want to fulfill, then they lose real meaning and steal the joy from our lives. And if we’re too religious, we won’t be able to be led by the Holy Spirit and enjoy an intimate relationship with Him.

Expecting is the greatest impediment to living. In anticipation of tomorrow, it loses today.

I was going to go to a four-year college and be an anthropologist or to an art school and be an illustrator when a friend convinced me to learn photography at the University of Southern California. Little did I know it was a school that taught you how to make movies! It had never occurred to me that I’d ever have any interest in filmmaking.

Comedy’s about opening up and being unique, but to a point where the audience can relate to what you’re saying.

Many people feel so pressured by the expectations of others that it causes them to be frustrated, miserable and confused about what they should do. But there is a way to live a simple, joy-filled, peaceful life, and the key is learning how to be led by the Holy Spirit, not the traditions or expectations of man.

Learning to make films is very easy. Learning what to make films about is very hard.

Where I think the most work needs to be done is behind the camera, not in front of it.

I like having my hands in the clay. I like the movie-making process.

As a Western, ‚The Magnificent Seven‘ was a pretty good film. I don’t think it was as interesting or as multi-faceted as ‚Seven Samurai.‘

The husband who decides to surprise his wife is often very much surprised himself.

I had not expected ‚A Brief History of Time‘ to be a best seller.

My favorite movies of all times is ‚Doctor Zhivago,‘ and I love ‚Gone With the Wind.‘ I’d love to play some Southern belle or something where I owned a plantation.

I think if you make a good movie, people walk away arguing.

One good thing about acting in film is that it’s good therapy.

Yesterday’s just a memory, tomorrow is never what it’s supposed to be.

The secret to film is that it’s an illusion.

I have my own vocabulary. I love linguistics. That surprises people.

Society has always to demand a little more from human beings than it will get in practice.

What we anticipate seldom occurs: but what we least expect generally happens.

In America there’s no way I can make the kind of movie I like to make.

Just because you make a good plan, doesn’t mean that’s what’s gonna happen.

On one of my last days at school, the headmaster said I would either end up in prison or become a millionaire. That was quite a startling prediction, but in some respects, he was right on both counts!

From my standpoint, being an artist, I want to see what the new construction is between artist and audience.

People expect your behavior to conform to known patterns and conventions. Your task as a strategist is to upset their expectations.

A sudden bold and unexpected question doth many times surprise a man and lay him open.

I always felt that if I was going to do a movie, I wanted it to be authentic.

It is totally different making films in the East than in the West. In the East, I make my own Jackie Chan films, and it’s like my family. Sometimes I pick up the camera because I choreograph all the fighting scenes, even when I’m not fighting. I don’t have my own chair. I just sit on the set with everybody.

Music is like film to me.

At 57, to have a No. 1 album, I wasn’t expecting it.

When I’m making an American film, it’s more safe because there are so many people on the set to watch me. Whatever I do, they say, ‚What are you doing!? Tell me first!‘ There are so many restrictions.

There’s strong data that, within companies, the No. 1 reason for ethical violations is the pressure to meet expectations, sometimes unrealistic expectations.

The secret to the movie business, or any business, is to get a good education in a subject besides film – whether it’s history, psychology, economics, or architecture – so you have something to make a movie about. All the skill in the world isn’t going to help you unless you have something to say.

I’m not Russell Crowe. I’m not going to do a period piece.

Every movie I make teaches me something. That’s why I keep making them.

What I’ve discovered is that in art, as in music, there’s a lot of truth-and then there’s a lie. The artist is essentially creating his work to make this lie a truth, but he slides it in amongst all the others. The tiny little lie is the moment I live for, my moment. It’s the moment that the audience falls in love.

I’m not who people expect me to be. I’m not Henry Kissinger.

I wouldn’t put myself forward to do a film like ‚Changeling‘ if I thought I couldn’t pull people into a story because of all the other ways people see me.

I get to hear the really good or the really bad things in the press, but I don’t read it. I can afford to say that because public opinion does not drive U2’s audience.

When you’re doing a film and the majority of the film is cast black, for me, it’s most important to get people to view those movies as just movies, as just good movies. At the end of the day, regardless of the color of the cast, we’re all doing the same thing in this business: trying to make a good film.

There can be no greater error than to expect, or calculate, upon real favors from nation to nation. It is an illusion which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard.

Better understated than overstated. Let people be surprised that it was more than you promised and easier than you said.

How to drive a guy crazy: send him a telegram and on the top put ‚page 2.‘

There’s a lot of pressure putting an album out all over the world and hoping people everywhere like it.

No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.

At the core, one of my original goals is to redefine what the streets expect.

I think, often, people who run away are people who got into things most enthusiastically, and then they want more. They just demand more of life than what is happening in the moment. Sometimes this is a great mistake, as it’s always a good deal different than you expect it.

Man’s real life is happy, chiefly because he is ever expecting that it soon will be so.

In all my years of baseball, I have always expected to be traded. I never liked the idea.

I am a fan of the ‚Rocky‘ films, and ‚Rocky 4‘ is my favourite. I also like ‚The Warriors.‘

I think – I don’t know, maybe it’s nostalgia. But the choice, losing the choice to be able to use film is going to be – it’s gone. It’s going to be gone.

I want to make a good, solid kung fu movie.

The wild Indian power of escaping observation, even where there is little or no cover to hide in, was probably slowly acquired in hard hunting and fighting lessons while trying to approach game, take enemies by surprise, or get safely away when compelled to retreat.

Those movies sure got me into a rut.

When you come to see a picture of mine, I want you to know that I’m not going to do anything that will make you uncomfortable. I want you to know that you won’t be disappointed in me.

I think most artists would be happy to have bigger audiences rather than smaller ones. It doesn’t mean that they are going to change their work in order necessarily to get it, but they’re happy if they do get it.

It would be great to be 105 and still making films.

You just don’t know when you get in the editing room what you will need as a link or a tool for a transition. If you’re in a room, and there’s a kettle boiling, get a shot of it. Don’t worry if people think you’re nuts.