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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

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William Friedkin
Age: 89
Born: 1935
Born: August 29
Film Director
Film Producer
Screenwriter
Television Director
Chicago
Illinois
Vilijam Friedkin
Great
Greatest
Whenever
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Call
Horror
People
Faith
Distance
Film
Neither
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Exorcist
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Mysteries

More quotes by William Friedkin

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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
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Sure, you could go out and make Jaws today. But all of the sequels to Jaws weren't good. They are all worthless. The Godfather II is the only sequel that I have ever seen that is as good as or better than the original.
William Friedkin
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There are films that I've made that I like a little bit more than the others. But the films that I mostly watch, and see over and over again, are not my own.
William Friedkin
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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
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There are many untalented people making millions of dollars in the film business.
William Friedkin
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You are always cheating for the audience.
William Friedkin
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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
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The first work of the director is to set a mood so that the actor's work can take place, so that the actor can create. And in order to do that, you have to communicate, communicate with the actors. And direction is about communication on all levels.
William Friedkin
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I believe today that there is no film and no shot in a film that is worth a squirrel getting a sprained ankle.
William Friedkin
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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
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Edgar Allan Poe is considered the great writer of horror stories, perhaps the greatest - I will say the greatest
William Friedkin
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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
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The Blu-ray is the real cinematech of world cinema. That's how it's being preserved. All of these guys that are trying to preserve 35mm negatives? They are wasting their time. There are better ways to see and project this stuff. It's called digital.
William Friedkin
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I tend to be attracted to characters who are up against a wall with very few alternatives. And the film then becomes an examination of how they cope with very few options. And that's, I guess, what interests me in terms of human behavior.
William Friedkin
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God knows, as a minority, gay people have taken serious lumps for their sexual preferences. As has every minority.
William Friedkin
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The art of movies is to allow the audience to suspend their disbelief. They need to use their imaginations.
William Friedkin
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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
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Star Wars is one of a handful of films that changed the zeitgeist forever.
William Friedkin
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The informing idea of what you want to say and do, that's what will take you from film school to professional - the idea. That's what is original to you.
William Friedkin
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I don't believe that Citizen Kane or Gone With the Wind, or any damn picture that you can name, would be better off in 3D. I think it's a gimmick. I find 3D distracting.
William Friedkin