Terry Gilliam quotes - page 2

Terry Gilliam is an American-born British filmmaker, animator, and actor, best known as a member of the comedy group Monty Python. His highly imaginative films are celebrated for their unique visual style and inventive storytelling. He has influenced generations of filmmakers with his visionary approach to cinema. Here are 49 of his quotes:

I was doing political cartoons and getting angry to the point where I felt I was going to have to start making and throwing bombs. I thought I was probably a better cartoonist than a bomb maker. (Terry Gilliam)
I was born in 1940 in Minnesota and grew up in the country... dirt roads, swamps, lakes, woods. View quote
Terry Gilliam
You get trapped by stories. Though I've got this reputation for being out of control, it's not true, it just happens to be a more interesting story than the truth. View quote
Terry Gilliam
There was a perverse side of me, with things like Van Helsing coming out. I didn't want to go down that route. View quote
Terry Gilliam
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. View quote
Terry Gilliam
The medieval imagery and iconography is so good for the imagination. Trying to describe the world, trying to describe the cosmos, trying to put it down in neat orderly fashion, unlike reality. And it always seems to stick in one's mind more than reality does. View quote
Terry Gilliam
Well, I really want to encourage a kind of fantasy, a kind of magic. I love the term magic realism, whoever invented it - I do actually like it because it says certain things. It's about expanding how you see the world. View quote
Terry Gilliam
And it always seems to stick in one's mind more than reality does. View quote
Terry Gilliam
Television and the media are everywhere and they are taking over so powerfully. They don't shut up for a second. So you are unable to think. View quote
Terry Gilliam
I like the Coen brothers. Their films are smart and disturbing. View quote
Terry Gilliam
Everything has become too political and it is ludicrous. (Terry Gilliam)
People are afraid. In the 1960s and 1970s we pushed the limits farther. View quote
Terry Gilliam
It's been interesting how kids have had hardly any problems watching it, but adults have more trouble. This happened way back even with Jabberwocky and Time Bandits. View quote
Terry Gilliam
At the first screening, there were a lot of areas that we went around and around about. Then we had our second screening. It played better. It's almost a reasonable length film now! View quote
Terry Gilliam
It was lights, camera, inaction. View quote
Terry Gilliam
We took up the offer with the BBC, and that was Monty Python's Flying Circus. I didn't have to submit my ideas to the group. I used to turn up on the days we recorded with a can of film under my arm, and in it went. View quote
Terry Gilliam
We did Holy Grail, and I got my name up there as one of the directors. After that, I started moving more and more down the line I wanted to, which was making movies. View quote
Terry Gilliam
It's 85 million dollars and they got to be really careful because they are going to need me. View quote
Terry Gilliam
I keep referring to them in the plural but all I'm dealing with is Bob. I don't know where Harvey fits in the equation. He was very present at the beginning, winding his brother up. I don't know where he is now. View quote
Terry Gilliam
The underground press was convinced that I was a junkie, an acid head. ... But I don't do drugs. I don't like being fucked up. I've got enough bizarre chemicals floating around in my head. I'm just naturally like this. View quote
Terry Gilliam
Well, I really want to encourage a kind of fantasy, a kind of magic. I love the term magic realism, whoever invented it - I do actually like it because it says certain things. It's about expanding how you see the world. I think we live in an age where we're just hammered, hammered to think this is what the world is. Television's saying, everything's saying "That's the world." And it's not the world. The world is a million possible things. (Terry Gilliam)
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. View quote
Terry Gilliam
They all sort of get mixed up in my head, to be quite honest. They're all dealing with similar things. It's about how you deal with reality, by ignoring it sometimes, reinventing it other times, and that's how you get through it. View quote
Terry Gilliam
I went to university on a scholarship that was funded by a church. I was on the way to becoming a Presbyterian missionary. In the end I left school. The reason was that I used to tell jokes about God and the people around me did not like the jokes. I asked them, What kind of God is this who can't cope with my lousy jokes? What kind of God feels threatened by these jokes? So I left. And the truth is that this is exactly what I have to say about the present situation. Everything has become too political and it is ludicrous. I understand why they are upset, but it has reached an absurd pass and the Muslims are only hurting themselves. View quote
Terry Gilliam

Terry Gilliam

Terry Gilliam - Image
Photo: Greg2600, CC BY-SA 2.0
Occupation: British Filmmaker
Born: November 22, 1940
Quotes count: 49
Wikipedia: Terry Gilliam

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