Quote

We make too much of the good and too much of the bad.

Robert Altman

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Good
Much
Make

More quotes by Robert Altman

Image
I like audiences to crane their necks.
Robert Altman
Image
[M*A*S*H] didn't get released by FOX, it escaped.
Robert Altman
Image
If George W. Bush is elected president, I'm leaving for France.
Robert Altman
Image
Chance is another name that we give to our mistakes. And all of the best things in my films are mistakes.
Robert Altman
Image
I was a heavy drinker, but the alcohol affected my heart rather than my liver. So I stopped. I smoke grass now. I say that to everybody, because marijuana should be legalized. It's ridiculous that it isn't. If at the end of the day I feel like smoking a joint I do it. It changes the perception of what I've been through all day.
Robert Altman
Image
Making a movie is like chipping away at a stone. You take a piece off here, you take a piece off there and when you're finished, you have a sculpture. You know that there's something in there, but you're not sure exactly what it is until you find it.
Robert Altman
Image
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
Image
Why should I keep doing things that I've done before?
Robert Altman
Image
I love fishing. You put that line in the water and you don't know what's on the other end. Your imagination is under there.
Robert Altman
Image
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
Image
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
Image
Retirement? You're talking about death, right?
Robert Altman
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
Words don't tell you what people are thinking. Rarely do we use words to really tell. We use words to sell people or to convince people or to make them admire us. It's all disguise. It's all hidden -- a secret language.
Robert Altman
Image
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
Image
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
Image
What is an ending? There's no such thing. Death is the only ending.
Robert Altman
Image
I'll give you the same advice I give my children: Never take advice from anybody.
Robert Altman