Quotes from Nicolas Roeg


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There was a village watercolour society and they'd come and paint in my field. I watched them from the window, the way they would struggle this way and that to find the perfect moment. God has made every angle on that beautiful, and I felt that tremendously.


When my sister and I were very young, my father used to tell us fairy stories that he'd made up. My mother was always telling him that he should write them down, but he would say, 'Well, they've all been done before. There are so many blooming books in the world - why should I write another one?'


Children's finger-painting came under the arts, but movies didn't.


But in marketing, the familiar is everything, and that is controlled by the studio. That is reaching its apogee now.


They think something's gone wrong, but in Don't Look Now, for instance, one scene was made by a mistake. It's the scene where Donald Sutherland goes to look for the policeman who's investigating the two women.


You cannot intellectualize yourself out of obsession. You cannot cure yourself of it.


Our lives are full of all the genres. Fear and hope and sadness.


Movies are not scripts - movies are films; they're not books, they're not the theatre.


Marketing is a very good thing, but it shouldn't control everything. It should be the tool, not that which dictates.


I imagine if aliens came down to Earth, they'd actually be quite tall; people seem to get everything right about extraterrestrials but the size!


I've used mirrors in a lot of movies. I think the mirror is an extraordinary thing, also the reflective, a reflection in water, etc.


You make the movie through the cinematography - it sounds quite a simple idea, but it was like a huge revelation to me.


Our memory and the movies keep movie stars alive for us, and Tony Curtis is still a star.


I like getting up early, but I haven't got a routine - mainly because I never have a clear idea of what day of the week it is.


And later I thought, I can't think how anyone can become a director without learning the craft of cinematography.


When I look around, I begin to understand what Socrates meant when he said, 'How much there is in the world I do not want.'


Film remains completely mystical and mysterious to me.


I made a film called 'Bad Timing' that I thought everybody would respond to. It was about obsessive love and physical obsession. I thought this must touch everyone, from university dons down.


The rules are learnt in order to be broken, but if you don't know them, then something is missing.


Men and women's needs and desires overlap but go in different directions as well.