Sometimes, you have to get angry to get things done.
Ang Lee
I hope people don't compare 2D and 3D because 3D's new, it's unfair to compare to 2D which is really sophisticated, even when we're jaded about it. 3D just began, give it a chance, let the equipment and projection system catch up and be better, let the price go down, let more filmmakers get a hold of it more easily.
Over the years Woodstock got glorified and romanticised and became the event that symbolised Utopia. It's the last page of our collective memory of the age of innocence. Then things turned ugly and would never be the same again.
The source of all the material comes from nothingness, illusion is working more on things you can prove. That's the principle, the essence of life, it is actually an illusion, not immaterial. That's worth pursuing. So illusion is not nothing. In a way, that is the truth.
I feel that everyone has a Hulk inside, and each of our Hulks is both scary and, potentially, pleasurable. That's the scariest thing about them.
A movie is really provocation. It's not a message, it's not a statement.
Sexuality is a big issue, but there are others - how much you commit to a relationship, to social obligation, to honesty and being honest with yourself.
I think the book struck me in a few ways that I thought very interesting to pick it as my first martial arts film. It has a very strong female character and it was very abundant in classic Chinese textures.
I think the American West really attracts me because it's romantic. The desert, the empty space, the drama.
For a filmmaker, it's a rare chance to do a personal film on a big canvas.
3D is quite a lot more advanced in animated movies; for live-action movies we're just taking baby steps, we're just in the beginning.
I think each movie-making process is a very exhausting and satisfying and fulfilling experience for me.
Sensitivity and money are like parallel lines. They don't meet.
I think great romance needs great obstacles and textures.
Not taboo - it's just that straight actors still risk their careers commercially and economically. They have to please the crowd - they're movie stars; their image is their industry. It goes beyond acting.
The L.A. weather is a lot like Taiwan's, where you don't observe four seasons, so the years can pass and you don't feel a thing.
I'm such a late bloomer.
On a Chinese film you just give orders, no one questions you. Here, you have to convince people, you have to tell them why you want to do it a certain way, and they argue with you. Democracy.
Americans are hidden dragons to me.
I look at American movies, the big muscles, and try to apply that to Chinese film-making.
I grew up pretty much prevented from knowing anything from Communist China except that they were the bad guys that stole our country.
So many times you see beautiful lovemaking scenes with a lot of exposure or an awkward lovemaking scene, but I think it's very rare that you see it private.
I'm still a novice student.
I don't have incredible knowledge about films or of filmmaking history; I'm not that kind of person.
My hometown was one of the major U.S. Air Force bases.
I don't like to deal with studios.
I am not particularly religious. But I think we do face the question of where God is, why we are created and where does life go, why we exist. That sort of thing. And it is very hard to talk about it these days, because it cannot be proven. It is hard to discuss it rationally.
When something possesses me, I go ahead and do it.
I don't think the Hulk is a superhero. He's the first Marvel character who is a tragic monster. Really an anti-hero.
When I grew up, in Taiwan, the Korean War was seen as a good war, where America protected Asia. It was sort of an extension of World War II. And it was, of course, the peak of the Cold War. People in Taiwan were generally proAmerican. The Korean War made Japan. And then the Vietnam War made Taiwan. There is some truth to that.
You can get rich or famous by doing the same thing.
Meanwhile, the Ice Storm was still in development, And that was something I really wanted to do, and frankly I don't think I was ready to do a big production like this.
I have two sons in America, and all they care about in Chinese culture is Jackie Chan and Jet Li.
The most mysterious feminine factor, the existence that we men, we don't know. It's woman. It's feminine. That's what the sword is about. That's the symbolic meaning of the sword.
I grew up pretty peacefully, in that Eastern way. You easily solve problems, believe in harmony. Reduce conflicts, take orders until one day you give orders.
Usually with this genre the first thing that happens is a good fight sequence to show that you're in good hands. So we broke that rule. I think a lot of that comes from the western audience.
I hate to think life is just facts and laws.
I took the name Green Destiny from - well there is such a sword called Green Destiny. It is green because you keep twisting it, it's an ancient skill, you keep twisting it and knocking it and twisting it until it is very elastic and light.
Film study was considered disgraceful by my father.
When I started out, nobody gave me scripts, so I had to write.
I think life without spirit is in the dark, it is absurd.
I had to find my way of translating the excitement you get when you're reading comic books to the big screen.
There's only one movie in my career I've had regrets with cutting it shorter, and I think some scenes maybe I shouldn't have cut.
To me, Ennis stands for the conservative side of America. He's the biggest homophobe in the whole movie - culturally and psychologically - but by the time he admits his feelings, it's too late.
My mother loves me and everything goes well. I have no conflict with her, so that's not dramatic.
Sometimes films ignore other points of view because it's simpler to tell the story that way, but the more genuine and sympathetic you are to different points of view and situations, the more real the story is.
Now I'm kind of established as a director, I much prefer directing to writing.
What is really a stretch to me is to make quick decisions.
I had to test a new terror in myself.
The woman's perspective is like the dark side of the moon: it always exists, but it is never exposed, at least not in my culture.
