Quote

With The Exorcist we said what we wanted to say. Neither one of us view it as a horror film. We view it as a film about the mysteries of faith. It's easier for people to call it a horror film. Or a great horror film. Or the greatest horror film ever made. Whenever I see that, I feel a great distance from it.

William Friedkin

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

William Friedkin
Age: 89
Born: 1935
Born: August 29
Film Director
Film Producer
Screenwriter
Television Director
Chicago
Illinois
Vilijam Friedkin
Feel
Easier
Exorcist
Feels
Views
Mysteries
Great
Greatest
Whenever
Made
Call
Horror
People
Faith
Distance
Film
Neither
Ever
Mystery
Wanted
View

More quotes by William Friedkin

Image
I don't look back or analyze my films. I just make them. It's for someone else to look at.
William Friedkin
Image
To me, the art of movies is to take a two-dimensional image and give the illusion of depth.
William Friedkin
Image
Directing is a nice job. It's the best job for me. If I had to pay money to do it, I would do it... Directing is playing. Acting.
William Friedkin
Image
'Star Wars' gave birth to all the computer-generated superhero films.
William Friedkin
Image
I don't think sexuality defines a person. It's one small part of who you are, in my view. You are many things, and I never felt that people were defined by their sexuality solely.
William Friedkin
Image
The thing that interests me is the good and evil in everybody. I don't have conventional heroes in the films that I directed, because I believe there's good and evil in everybody.
William Friedkin
Image
The art of movies is to allow the audience to suspend their disbelief. They need to use their imaginations.
William Friedkin
Image
Style is something that's extremely important, but it must grow naturally out of who and what you are and what the material calls for. It cannot be superimposed.
William Friedkin
Image
Star Wars is one of a handful of films that changed the zeitgeist forever.
William Friedkin
Image
There is a thin line between the policeman and the criminal. The best cops are always crossed. The best cops are the ones who are able to think like criminals. But for a quirk of fate, they might have been criminals.
William Friedkin
Image
I don't go to the movies much anymore. There's very little that draws me. I watch mostly the older stuff, and I often don't sit through the new films.
William Friedkin
Image
Edgar Allan Poe is considered the great writer of horror stories, perhaps the greatest - I will say the greatest
William Friedkin
Image
One of my themes is that there is good and evil in everyone. I was not out to make these guys heroes. I really don't believe in heroes. The best of people have a dark side and it's a constant struggle for the better side to survive and to thrive.
William Friedkin
Image
With all of my films that are on DVD and Blu-ray, I have spent weeks with them in a color timing room. Just changing or enhancing them. I have been desaturating the color. Sometimes I will make a scene bluer or redder. I do use the new medium. I believe in it.
William Friedkin
Image
I don't like 3D. I don't believe there is any film that I have seen and loved that would have been improved by a scintilla in 3D. To me, it's just a gimmick.
William Friedkin
Image
All the great countries are at odds with one another over something, and yet if they don't cooperate they're going to blow up.
William Friedkin
Image
And it was only a week later that I realized a close up of Steve McQueen was worth the greatest landscape you could find.
William Friedkin
Image
You don't leave the film alone. You have a new audience, and you have a new medium. Why would you leave it alone? Film is not an antique. It's not a relic. It's not a Leonardo da Vinci. I don't want someone painting over a da Vinci or Rembrandt. But these movies aren't that.
William Friedkin
Image
Violence is not funny.
William Friedkin
Image
In the case of a film like The Exorcist or To Live and Die in L.A., I saw the whole movie in my head before I went to shoot it. I never did storyboards, or anything like that. I had the film in my head.
William Friedkin