Roman Polanski Quotes

Cinema should make you forget you are sitting in a theater.

I can only say that whatever my life and work have been, I'm not envious of anyone-and this is my biggest satisfaction.

I don't really know what is shocking. When you tell the story of a man who is beheaded, you have to show how they cut off his head. If you don't, it's like telling a dirty joke and leaving out the punch line.

I know that atmosphere of the Parisian apartment building, with the twin menaces of the concierge on the ground floor and the landlord upstairs.

I never made a film which fully satisfied me.

I see Macbeth as a young, open-faced warrior, who is gradually sucked into a whirpool of events because of his ambition. When he meets the weird sisters and hears their prophecy, he's like the man who hopes to win a million-a gambler for high stakes.

I want people to go to the movies. I am the man of the spectacle. I'm playing.

If you have a great passion it seems that the logical thing is to see the fruit of it, and the fruit are children.

In Paris, one is always reminded of being a foreigner. If you park your car wrong, it is not the fact that it's on the sidewalk that matters, but the fact that you speak with an accent.

My films are the expression of momentary desires. I follow my instincts, but in a disciplined way.

Normal love isn't interesting. I assure you that it's incredibly boring.

People like Truffaut, Lelouch and Godard are like little kids playing at being revolutionaries. I've passed through this stage. I lived in a country where these things happened seriously.

Whenever I get happy, I always have a terrible feeling.

You have to show violence the way it is. If you don't show it realistically, then that's immoral and harmful. If you don't upset people, then that's obscenity.