Steven Spielberg - biography

1946-

Biography

Steven Spielberg is best-known for the following films:

Steven Spielberg Quotes

“Naturally, it is a terrible, despicable crime when, as in Munich, people are taken hostage, people are killed. But probing the motives of those responsible and showing that they are also individuals with families and have their own story does not excuse what they did.”

“I dream for a living.”

“You have many years ahead of you to create the dreams that we can’t even imagine dreaming. You have done more for the collective unconscious of this planet than you will ever know.”

“I always think of the audience when I’m directing - because I am the audience.”

“I solve my problems with the movies I make. Where there’s a character in conflict in a movie, some part of that character is part of me that needs to be straightened out.”

“I’ve been really serious about this as a career since I was 12 years old.”

“I’ve discovered I’ve got this preoccupation with ordinary people pursued by large forces.”

“People have forgotten how to tell a story. Stories don’t have a middle or an end any more. They usually have a beginning that never stops beginning.”

“The more and more terrified people get of making Westerns, the more I want to do one.”

“The most expensive habit in the world is celluloid not heroin, and I need a fix every two years.”

“There is a fine line between censorship and good taste and moral responsibility.”

“When I grow up I still want to be a director.”

“When I’m 60, Hollywood will forgive me. I don’t know for what, but they’ll forgive me.”

“[George Lucas] reminded me a little bit of Walt Disney’s version of a mad scientist.”

“[On producing] I’d rather direct. Any day. And twice on Sundays.”

“[On the shooting of E.T.] Oh, torture. Torture. My pubic hairs went gray.”

“A lot of the films I’ve made probably could have worked just as well 50 years ago, and that’s just because I have a lot of old-fashion values.”

“Every time I go to a movie, it’s magic, no matter what the movie’s about.”

“I don’t think any movie or any book or any work of art can solve the stalemate in the Middle East today. But it’s certainly worth a try.”

“I like the smell of film. I just like knowing there’s film going through the camera.”

“I love Rambo but I think it’s potentially a very dangerous movie. It changes history in a frightening way.”

“I want to be the Cecil B. DeMille of science fiction.”

“I wanted to do another movie that could make us laugh and cry and feel good about the world. I wanted to do something else that could make us smile. This is a time when we need to smile more and Hollywood movies are supposed to do that for people in difficult times.”

“I never felt comfortable with myself, because I was never part of the majority. I always felt awkward and shy and on the outside of the momentum of my friends’ lives.”

“The public has an appetite for anything about imagination - anything that is as far away from reality as is creatively possible.”

“All of us every single year, we’re a different person. I don’t think we’re the same person all our lives.”

“I’m not really interested in making money.”

“Why pay a dollar for a bookmark? Why not use the dollar for a bookmark?”

“I am an American Jew and aware of the sensitivities involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

“I’m a Democrat with Republican underpinnings. I’m liberal about a lot of things but I’m bullish about America.”

“I’m always in favor of Israel responding strongly when it’s threatened. At the same time, a response to a response doesn’t really solve anything. It just creates a perpetual-motion machine.”

“I interviewed survivors, I went to Poland, saw the cities and spent time with the people and spoke to the Jews who had come back to Poland after the war and talked about why they had come back.”

“If Bush, as I believe, has reliable information on the fact that Saddam Hussein is making weapons of mass destruction, I cannot not support the policies of his government.”

“There is something about killing people at close range that is excruciating. It’s bound to try a man’s soul.”

“When war comes, two things happen - profits go way, way up and all perishables go way, way down. There becomes a market for them.”

“Failure is inevitable. Success is elusive.”

“You know, I don’t really do that much looking inside me when I’m working on a project. Whatever I am becomes what that film is. But I change; you change.”

Filmography

The Film Director