What scares me is what scares you. Weโre all afraid of the same things. Thatโs why horror is such a powerful genre. All you have to do is ask yourself what frightens you and youโll know what frightens me.
John CarpenterHorror is always the same. It changes with the culture and changes with technology. The stories are always the same. There are just two basic stories in horror, two simple ones -- evil is outside and evil is in here [points to his heart].
John CarpenterTo survive you have to withstand the changes in the business. This business has gone through so many changes since I was young and now it is on to something else. It is all weird today, for me, because I am from the old times. You just have to keep adapting. Isn't that Darwinism? The creature that adapts to its environment survives.
John CarpenterYou play with everything you've got. I'm not a lover of cheap tricks. I've always loved playing with people, but there's no rule about it. You try everything you can.
John CarpenterThe strongest human emotion is fear. It's the essence of any good thriller that, for a little while, you believe in the boogeyman.
John CarpenterI'm pretty happy with who I am. I like myself and what I'm doing. I don't need to be the world's greatest director or the most famous -- or the richest. I don't need to make a whole lot of great films. I can do my job and I can do it pretty well. This is the realization I've come to, later in life. It's called growing up.
John Carpenter