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Most of my films I call arena films. I deal with a confined area -- an arena -- and I try to cover every aspect of it.
Robert Altman
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Robert Altman
Age: 81 †
Born: 1925
Born: February 20
Died: 2006
Died: November 20
Film Director
Film Editor
Film Producer
Librettist
Screenwriter
Theatrical Director
Writer
Kansas City
Missouri
Call
Arena
Film
Area
Trying
Cover
Every
Areas
Aspect
Films
Deal
Deals
Confined
More quotes by Robert Altman
Why should I keep doing things that I've done before?
Robert Altman
Titanic I thought was the most dreadful piece of work I've ever seen in my entire life. Another film that I think is equally bad was American Beauty. So badly acted and directed. But people like that.
Robert Altman
Happy endings are absolutely ludicrous, they're not true at all. We see the guy carry the girl across the threshold and everybody lives happily ever after -- that's bullshit. Three weeks later he's beating her up and she's suing for divorce and he's got cancer.
Robert Altman
If George W. Bush is elected president, I'm leaving for France.
Robert Altman
That wasn't an ending. It was just a stopping point.
Robert Altman
Maybe there's a chance to get back to grown-up films. Anything that uses humor and dramatic values to deal with human emotions and gets down to what people are to people.
Robert Altman
Retirement? You're talking about death, right?
Robert Altman
If something works for you, you continue to do it. I did a bunch of pictures for 20th Century Fox when Alan Ladd was over there, but I set the budgets so low that they'd approve and I'd deliver the film. They would have no say in it, which is the kind of arrangement I liked.
Robert Altman
There was not a lot of dialogue. The titles were just to keep you up. It's the visual stimulation that hits the audience. That's the reason for film. Otherwise, we might as well turn the light out and call it radio.
Robert Altman
Chance is another name that we give to our mistakes. And all of the best things in my films are mistakes.
Robert Altman
I want to see something that I've never seen before, so how can I tell that actor what that is? I'm not trying to construct a document or situation that is what I want, because what I want is something new to me.
Robert Altman
The Oscar for the films, it'd be nice. But I don't make those kind of films, and I don't think that will ever happen.
Robert Altman
I don't know what Altmanesque means, though I suppose I'm flattered by it.
Robert Altman
They'll never give me an Oscar. And I sincerely, honestly don't care. I always turn up when I'm nominated and it would be nice to get one, but to win one would be bad luck. It comes with too much expectation. It would be the end.
Robert Altman
I have never made a movie that's attracted a 14-year-old boy.
Robert Altman
What is an ending? There's no such thing. Death is the only ending.
Robert Altman
I've had it-the agencies, the winking, the networks, the ratings. Anyone who thinks TV is an art medium is crazy-it's an advertising medium.
Robert Altman
If you have a child who is seven feet tall, you don't cut off his head or his legs. You buy him a bigger bed and hope he plays basketball.
Robert Altman
I'll give you the same advice I give my children: Never take advice from anybody.
Robert Altman
I've never had a big hit movie. MASH was probably the biggest. I don't make those kind of films, and I never have. I wish each one of them would just do billions of dollars worth of ticket sales, but they never do and they never will.
Robert Altman
