Guy Ritchie Quotes

“After Lock, Stock, all these really nasty small town characters came knocking at my door trying to tell me stories, and somehow I ended up with this guy whose brother was feeding people to pigs, and that's what he did to get rid of people.”

“All the other guys I think had a scream on Lock, Stock. They just had a laugh and a crack, and thought it would never come out; they were just having a good time. On this one, I felt that.”

“Brad Pitt, poor geezer, was blown up, thrown around, burned, slapped, frozen. But never a moan or a whine. Now that's what I call a real star.”

“I am not involved in any 'issues' because it's too sensitive for me – or my wife – to get involved. Every time we express an opinion it becomes a whole thing in itself. And the whole purpose of living in the countryside was to get away from hundreds of people. My wife fell off a horse, and suddenly there are hundreds of people around.”

“I can understand that the whole world is interested in my wife Madonna. That's even why I married her.”

“I got into film-making because I was interested in making entertaining movies, which I felt there was a lack of.”

“I got too fed up with films that didn't make you think. I liked the idea of one that you'd have to be dancing around with. I like my mind to be engaged when I watch a film.”

“I like death. I'm a big fan of it.”

“I like to think that we've got a plan, so let's stick to it. That said, once we've stuck to it, we're allowed as much improvisation as anyone cares to indulge themselves in.”

“I love fatherhood. I could bang on about kids forever.”

“I still love Madonna. But she's retarded, too.”

“I suppose directing on set is the most fun because it's a good crack and you feel you're on the battlefield whereas writing is a fairly solitary undertaking.”

“I think there's a natural system in your own head about how much violence the scene warrants. It's not an intellectual process, it's an instinctive process.”

“I'm not politically motivated. I used to be – passionately. I used to be very Left wing. Then I went very Right wing, and now I rest somewhere in the middle.”

“I'm not under too much of an illusion of how smart or un-smart I am because filmmaking ultimately is about teamwork.”

“If somebody has a better idea than me, I'll take it if it surpasses what we have on the page because at the end of the day, it's me that takes the credit anyway!”

“If you change the rules on what controls you... you will change the rules on what you can control.”

“If you find a TV series that you like, you like the tone of the TV series or the movie.”

“In fact, 95% of the people in my films have been nothing less than a pleasure to work with.”

“It's about not letting the internal enemy, the real enemy, have his way because the more he does the stronger he becomes. The film's about the devastating results that can manifest from the internal enemy being unbridled and allowed to unleash chaos.”

“It's not easy to strap yourself down to a desk and bash on a keyboard when you know you can direct lots of films, because directing films is fun and interactive and gregarious. Writing isn't.”

“It's OK to have beliefs, just don't believe in them.”

“Its about not letting the internal enemy, the real enemy, have his way because the more he does the stronger he becomes. The films about the devastating results that can manifest from the internal enemy being unbridled and allowed to unleash chaos.”

“Jake Green isn't just Jake Green. Jake represents all of us. The colour green is the central column of the spectrum and the name Jake has all sorts of numerical values. All things come back to him within the film's world of cons and games.”

“Life is painful, once you accept that, it's infinitely less painful.”

“My approach to violence is that if it's pertinent, if that's the kind of movie you're making, then it has a purposeI think there's a natural system in your own head about how much violence the scene warrants. It's not an intellectual process, it's an instinctive process. I like to think it's not violence for the sake of violence and in this particular film, it's actually violence for the annihilation of violence.”

“My principal job is to make interesting and entertaining films, and I'm not proud of which format or which particular technique I use. I just wanted the film to look good.”

“On Lock, Stock, we didn't know where the money for shooting the next day was coming from.”

“One of the interesting and exciting things about my job is watching technological ground being pioneered.”

“Other than the fact that I like a country house, I can't think of anything I'd want to spend my money on.”