Terry Gilliam Quotes

“A lot of people seem to get carried away that something that's made out of paper mâché is going to be better than not. And I always thought the original King Kong, that terrible little puppet with its hair going in all directions, was far more magical than Peter Jackson's incredibly beautifully rendered King Kong. So there's something to be said for a more primitive version of things. I think it's because it makes the audience work a little bit more, because you've got to invest it with life and reality, so I like doing that.”

“Actually, I began to think that maybe there is a God, after all. Or maybe it's a different one. The old one got fired.”

“All films are learning processes. I am still trying to work out how you make a movie. I didn't study at film school or any of those things. I didn't bother with film theory.”

“Because I dislike being quoted I lie almost constantly when talking about my work.”

“Every few years when it's been another five years that have passed and I haven't made a film and the depression starts taking over totally, I allow myself to do a commercial. And then I feel really dirty and get to work promptly.”

“Everybody gets excited about technology, but it doesn't interest me in the least. I'm only interested in it if it makes my job easier or cheaper. They're tools.”

“Fantasy isn't just a jolly escape: It's an escape, but into something far more extreme than reality, or normality. It's where things are more beautiful and more wondrous and more terrifying. You move into a world of conflicting extremes.”

“Gorillaz virtually changed my wife... sorry, I mean, life... no, actually, it was my wife.”

“I can feel my dreams but I can't remember them.”

“I do think so much of what I do is reactive to the way the world sees itself, or the way the world is being portrayed. I wanted to offer an alternative to that. Whether it is accepted or not is beside the point, but it's an alternative.”

“I do want to say things in these films. I want audiences to come out with shards stuck in them. I don't care if people love my films or walk out, as long as they have a strong response.”

“I don't think you ever learn just one thing. At some point you start unlearning things. I have been working hard to unlearn everything I know.”

“I got my head bashed in at a demonstration against the Vietnam War. Police were losing control because they were up against a world they really didn't understand.”

“I got tired of my taxes paying for exciting little wars around the world. Then I discovered that when I died, my wife would probably have to sell our house to pay for the taxes in America.”

“I hate losing laughs; they're rare things.”

“I have always got medicine I want to give to people.”

“I just like the fact I can make a film which might give comfort to some people who think they are the only crazy person in the world and suddenly they see there are two crazy people in the world.”

“I never define depression, clinical or otherwise. It's the basis of most life. It seems to be the modern world: we all are depressed.”

“I think that's the problem with kids now. Everything is manufactured. And then they're sitting there watching the television, where all the work is done for them. Radio made me use my imagination.”

“I want brave people. Fearless ones. A good actor just goes out and leaps off the edge and develops wings on his way down, hopefully. That's the kind of people I really enjoy working with. Playing safe isn't much fun. I like danger. It's controlled danger, always, and that's why I hope I don't lure too many good actors down into the pits with me, because I hope they maintain their own unique talents.”

“I was getting frustrated with America. It's interesting how as simple a thing as, like, letting your hair grow longer changed in the world in those days.”

“I'm a cartoonist, it's what I am at heart, so cartoons take reality and deform it and make it grotesque, you make it funny, but you alter it. If it works, it's based on reality. That's what I try to do.”

“I'm more prone to anarchy than I am to control – even though I'm a film director.”

“I'm overwhelmed by writers. Most people aren't impressed by writers, but if you can draw a cartoon or a picture, they think you're magic.”

“I'm trying to escape by forming my own kind of world. Basically, I'm trying to encourage others to do the same.”

“I've always sworn that not having enough money has saved me from mediocrity.”

“I've given up asking questions. l merely float on a tsunami of acceptance of anything life throws at me... and marvel stupidly.”

“If you really want your films to say something that you hope is unique, then patience and stamina, thick skin and a kind of stupidity, a mule-like stupidity, is what you really need.”

“In advertising, I was frustrated by having to deal with the client. It was the only time I really worked in a proper office, and I didn't like it – simple as that.”

“Invariably, what I'm trying to do is more ambitious than the budget, but we manage to do it somehow.”