Quentin Tarantino Quotations

I look at 'Death Proof' and realize I had too much time.

If I really considered myself a writer, I wouldn't be writing screenplays. I'd be writing novels.

I like it when somebody tells me a story, and I actually really feel that that's becoming like a lost art in American cinema.

If there is something magic about the collaborations I have with actors it's because I put the character first.

I couldn't spell anything. I couldn't remember anything, but I could go to a movie and I knew who starred in it, who directed it, everything.

Novelists have always had complete freedom to pretty much tell their story any way they saw fit. And that's what I'm trying to do.

I've always thought my soundtracks do pretty good, because they're basically professional equivalents of a mix tape I'd make for you at home.

I just grew up watching a lot of movies. I'm attracted to this genre and that genre, this type of story, and that type of story. As I watch movies I make some version of it in my head that isn't quite what I'm seeing - taking the things I like and mixing them with stuff I've never seen before.

Dogs got personality. Personality goes a long way.

I'm a big collector of vinyl - I have a record room in my house - and I've always had a huge soundtrack album collection. So what I do, as I'm writing a movie, is go through all those songs, trying to find good songs for fights, or good pieces of music to layer into the film.

I want to top expectations. I want to blow you away.

I loved history because to me, history was like watching a movie.

I was kind of excited about going to jail the first time and I learnt some great dialogue.

My plan is to have a theatre in some small town or something and I'll be manager. Ill be the crazy old movie guy.

I cannot get myself interested in video games. I've been given video game players and they just sit there connected to my TVs gathering dust until eventually I unplug them so I can put in another special-region DVD player.

I don't really consider myself an American filmmaker like, say, Ron Howard might be considered an American filmmaker. If I'm doing something and it seems to me to be reminiscent of an Italian giallo, I'm gonna to do it like an Italian giallo.

A writer should have this little voice inside of you saying, Tell the truth. Reveal a few secrets here.

I don't believe in elitism. I don't think the audience is this dumb person lower than me. I am the audience.

I have loved movies as the number one thing in my life so long that I can't ever remember a time when I didn't.

Violence is one of the most fun things to watch.

I always do an all-night horror marathon on Saturdays where we start at seven and go until five in the morning.

Sergio Leone was a big influence on me because of the spaghetti westerns.

It's a standard staple in Japanese cinema to cut somebody's arm off and have red water hoses for veins, spraying blood everywhere.

I love Elmore Leonard. To me, True Romance is basically like an Elmore Leonard movie.

My parents said, Oh, he's going to be a director someday. I wanted to be an actor.

To me, movies and music go hand in hand. When I'm writing a script, one of the first things I do is find the music I'm going to play for the opening sequence.

Movies are my religion and God is my patron. I'm lucky enough to be in the position where I don't make movies to pay for my pool. When I make a movie, I want it to be everything to me; like I would die for it.

If I wasn't a film-maker, I'd be a film critic. It's the only thing I'd be qualified to do.

I am a genre lover - everything from spaghetti western to samurai movie.

Something stopped me in school a little bit. Anything that I'm not interested in, I can't even feign interest.

I'm very happy with the way I write. I think I do it good. But I've never really considered myself a writer.

As a viewer, the minute I start getting confused, I check out of the movie. Emotionally, I'm severed.

I've always considered myself a filmmaker who writes stuff for himself to do.

I want do a Mandarin language movie. It'll probably be the next movie I do after the one I do next.

I've always wanted to work with Warren Beatty.

It's very important that every movie I do makes money because I want the people that had the faith in me to get their money back.

To be a novelist, all I need is a pen and a piece of paper.

Everything I learned as an actor, I have basically applied to writing.

I want to have the fun of doing anime and I love anime, but I can't do storyboards because I can't really draw and that's what they live and die on.

I'm not a Hollywood basher because enough good movies come out of the Hollywood system every year to justify its existence, without any apologies.

I've always thought John Travolta is one of the greatest movie stars Hollywood has ever produced.

My mom took me to see Carnal Knowledge and The Wild Bunch and all these kind of movies when I was a kid.

I wasn't trying to top Pulp Fiction with Jackie Brown. I wanted to go underneath it and make a more modest character study movie.

Reservoir Dogs is a small film, and part of its charm was that it was a small film. I'd probably make it for $3 million now so I'd have more breathing room.

I actually think one of my strengths is my storytelling.

When I'm writing something, I try not to get analytical about it as I'm doing it, as I'm writing it.

Movies are not about the weekend that they're released, and in the grand scheme of things, that's probably the most unimportant time of a film's life.

I don't think Pulp Fiction is hard to watch at all.

If you just love movies enough, you can make a good one.

When people ask me if I went to film school I tell them, 'no, I went to films.'

I don't think it's a stretch. I always knew Johnny was a good actor. But also, when you're looking for the ultimate, charming, redneck-scoundrel rascal, I think Johnny's the go-to guy.

L.A. is so big that if you don't actually live in Hollywood, you might as well be from a different planet.

I wasn't familiar with him, and I thought the scene was too brutal for the song. So what do I know?

The fact that England has embraced me as one of its own is really cool,

Ben Affleck, he looked like a little girl!,

Ben Affleck, he looked like a little girl! When I saw Ben Affleck and Dave Spade acting like little girls, I said I got this one. I'm all good. I don't have to worry about nothing. ... That part that was in the wall, that was the bomb.

That part that was in the wall, that was the bomb. I wanted a lot of wall time and Wally gave me the wall time.

Tell you what. Next time I do a movie, you can drive me to the set.

I'm not, you know, Ronald McDonald opening up this Kmart or something, ... Rather than asking me for my autograph, you're actually watching a movie with me. If you want to sit there and talk about how to get into the business and ask me questions about 'Pulp Fiction' I'm not going to be very responsive. I'll probably shut you down. All right? But if you want to talk to me about the movie we just showed and what you thought about it, I'll talk to you all (expletive) night.

I'm not, you know, Ronald McDonald opening up this Kmart or something. Rather than asking me for my autograph, you're actually watching a movie with me. If you want to sit there and talk about how to get into the business and ask me questions about 'Pulp Fiction' I'm not going to be very responsive. I'll probably shut you down. All right? But if you want to talk to me about the movie we just showed and what you thought about it, I'll talk to you all (expletive) night.

If there's another level of heaven, that's where I'm at,

If there is only one film you see this year, let this be it.

I'm a big collector of vinyl-I have a record room in my house-and I've always had a huge soundtrack album collection.

I could do it, ... I've actually figured out a way, even though the characters have gotten older, to do it. I just have to have the ambition to write it.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing to do, but when you try to deal with prescient themes in the present, that is what you're doing.

I mean, there's an aspect I've always said that is - it's, you know, it's not poetry but it's kind of like it. It's not song lyrics but it's kind of like song lyrics. It's not rap but it's kind of like rap. And it's not stand-up comedy but it is kind of like stand-up comedy. It's all those things together.

In real life there are no bad guys. Everybody just has their own perspective.

To me "King Kong" is a metaphor for America's fear of the black male and to me that's obvious. All right, so I mean that was one of the first things I said when I was talking to a friend of mine after he saw Peter Jackson's version of "King Kong."

The good ideas will survive.

When it came to a lot of these German actors with the English, they just couldn't do it. They couldn't get the poetry out of it. They couldn't own it and make it their own. And they were struggling with it. And then, Christoph [Waltz] came in and I didn't know who Christoph was.

L.A. is so big that if you don't actually live in Hollywood, you might as well be from a different planet.

Most, actually, German actors have like some speaking of French. So, the French wasn't the problem. But, I was having a problem with them doing my dialogue in English. And it wasn't a matter of fluency.

I don't have any bone to pick with critics. In fact, if I wasn't a filmmaker I would probably be a film critic. Most of my bone is I would be a better film critic than most of the film critics I read.

When you start writing, you have your characters on a metaphorical paved road, and as they go down it, all these other roads become available that they can go down. And a lot of writers have roadblocks in front of those roads: they won't allow their characters to go down those roads. I've never put any roadblocks on any of these paths. My characters can go wherever they would naturally go, and I'll follow them.

To me, torture would be watching sports on television.

Don't write what you think people want to read. Find your voice and write about what's in your heart.

Violence is fun, man.

I definitely have some colleagues that I respect, and we get together from time to time. But I actually have just like genuine friends. Paul Thomas Anderson is a genuine friend. Robert Rodriguez is a genuine friend. Rick [Richard] Linklater is a genuine friend. Eli Roth is a genuine friend. And so is Edgar Wright.

I don't have to play the song all the way to the very end - I use it while it's good and while it's cool and while it's exciting, and then I get out.

I didnt go to film school, i went to films

Pigs are filthy animals. I don't eat filthy animals.

A thing when I was writing the movie [The hateful eight] was, I hate The Confederate cause. I've always felt that they are our Nazis and the rebel flag was our swastika. So I totally have no love for that whole romance for that Antebellum time period.

You know what the funniest thing about Europe is? It's the little differences.

Hamburgers! The corner-stone of any nutritious breakfast.

Superman didn't become Superman. Superman was born Superman. When Superman wakes up in the morning, he's Superman. His alter ego is Clark Kent. His outfit with the big red "S", that's the blanket he was wrapped in as a baby when the Kents found him. Those are his clothes. What Kent wears - the glasses, the business suit - that's the costume. That's the costume Superman wears to blend in with us. Clark Kent is how Superman views us. And what are the characteristics of Clark Kent. He's weak... he's unsure of himself... he's a coward. Clark Kent is Superman's critique on the whole human race.

I don't judge my characters, and that's my job not to judge them.

And by banning [smartphones] from the set, the whole crew tends to work tighter with each other. And then it just becomes a thing where people kind of fall in love with the idea, 'This is the film-industry that I signed up for! This is really wonderful.' But then they go back to another set and everybody's on their cellphone, everyone's in their own little box, and they get depressed about it.

I don't think there's anything to be afraid of. Failure brings great rewards - in the life of an artist.

A movie doesn't have to do everything. A movie just has to do a couple of things. If it does those things well and gives you a cool night at the movies, an emotion, that's good enough.

You should be semi-embarrasse d about certain people seeing your movie.

I remember, like, literally saying - watching some cowboy-and-Indian movie with my mother, and I go, so, if we were back then, we'd be the Indians, right? She goes, yup, that's who we'd be. We wouldn't be those guys in the covered wagons. We'd be the Indians.

The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides By the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, Shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, For he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger Those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

If I've made it a little easier for artists to work in violence, great! I've accomplished something.

Sure, and that's the cool thing about DVD: you can pack stuff on the disc that would've been too much for the big screen because actually it would've only interested yourself and a bunch of fanboys, who wanna know everything.

If you're a film fan, collecting video is sort of like marijuana. Laser discs, they're definitely cocaine. Film prints are heroin, all right? You're shooting smack when you start collecting film prints. So, I kinda got into it in a big way, and I've got a pretty nice collection I'm real proud of.

And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my fingers upon thee!

I am not going to tell you how I believe, but I do believe in God.

What if a kid goes to school after seeing Kill Bill and starts slicing up other kids? You know, I'll take that chance! Violent films don't turn children into violent people. They may turn them into violent filmmakers but that's another matter altogether.

Critics don't want to see directors they like make too much of a left turn. That's good for criticism.

There was that last blast of Westerns that came out in the Seventies, those Vietnam/Watergate Westerns where everything was about demystification. And I like that about those movies.