Nicolas Roeg quotes

Nicolas Roeg was an English film director and cinematographer renowned for his innovative storytelling and visual style. His influential works include classics such as "Don't Look Now" and "Walkabout," which challenged traditional narrative forms. He left a lasting impact on modern cinema with his bold use of editing and non-linear narrative. Here are 28 of his quotes:

You make the movie through the cinematography - it sounds quite a simple idea, but it was like a huge revelation to me. (Nicolas Roeg)
Marketing is a very good thing, but it shouldn't control everything. It should be the tool, not that which dictates. View quote
Nicolas Roeg
I've used mirrors in a lot of movies. I think the mirror is an extraordinary thing, also the reflective, a reflection in water, etc. View quote
Nicolas Roeg
Too many films today feel formulaic and familiar. I prefer it when the familiar is made to feel strange. View quote
Nicolas Roeg
I've always thought there was something very marvelous and magical about mirrors, and that they are connected to memory as well. View quote
Nicolas Roeg
Mirrors are the essence of movies. View quote
Nicolas Roeg
Movies are not scripts - movies are films; they're not books, they're not the theatre. View quote
Nicolas Roeg
But in marketing, the familiar is everything, and that is controlled by the studio. That is reaching its apogee now. View quote
Nicolas Roeg
I've always felt that, although Truffaut was greatly revered and admired, at the same time, in terms of film and how much he loved film, he was underestimated. View quote
Nicolas Roeg
Don't you think it's something strange that you rarely look at yourself in the mirror, except to do things like stand and ponder? I mean, in Shakespeare's day, it was thought that the mirror would reveal something, that it is trying to tell you something - not just to tidy your hair, but something more. View quote
Nicolas Roeg
My father was an extraordinary man. (Nicolas Roeg)
There was a village watercolour society and they'd come and paint in my field. I watched them from the window, the way they would struggle this way and that to find the perfect moment. God has made every angle on that beautiful, and I felt that tremendously. View quote
Nicolas Roeg
They think something's gone wrong, but in Don't Look Now, for instance, one scene was made by a mistake. It's the scene where Donald Sutherland goes to look for the policeman who's investigating the two women. View quote
Nicolas Roeg
In life, we all learn from everyone. View quote
Nicolas Roeg
Any change in form produces a fear of change, and that has accelerated. Marketing is the death of invention, because marketing deals with the familiar. View quote
Nicolas Roeg
Some people are very lucky, and have the story in their heads. I've never storyboarded anything. I like the idea of chance. What makes God laugh is people who make plans. View quote
Nicolas Roeg
The great difference between screen acting and theatre acting is that screen acting is about reacting - 75% of the time, great screen actors are great reactors. View quote
Nicolas Roeg
Years ago I had a house in Sussex, it was like Arcadia, with an old Victorian bridge, a pond and the Downs. View quote
Nicolas Roeg
I imagine if aliens came down to Earth, they'd actually be quite tall; people seem to get everything right about extraterrestrials but the size! View quote
Nicolas Roeg
When a book is just a plot, you know, two men fight for the love of a woman in a wild frontier, I immediately ask, 'Why?' View quote
Nicolas Roeg
We all have our beliefs or our agnosticism. (Nicolas Roeg)
Youth is so exciting. It'll take over. I don't want to be swept away. I want to be with the taking-over people, right to the end. View quote
Nicolas Roeg
The rules are learnt in order to be broken, but if you don't know them, then something is missing. View quote
Nicolas Roeg
We're all influenced by everything unless we're locked in an empty room. View quote
Nicolas Roeg
I've always admired the tradition of storytellers who sat in the public market and told their stories to gathered crowds. They'd start with a single premise and talk for hours - the notion of one story, ever-changing but never-ending. View quote
Nicolas Roeg

Nicolas Roeg

Nicolas Roeg - Image
Photo: Wikimedia commons, CC BY-SA 2.5
Occupation: English Director
Born: August 15, 1928
Died: November 23, 2018
Quotes count: 28