People want to classify and say, 'OK, this is a gangster film.' 'This is a Western.' 'This is a... ' You know? It's easy to classify and it makes people feel comfortable, but it doesn't matter, it doesn't really matter.
Martin ScorseseI know that I come from mid-20th century America, urban, specifically downtown New York, specifically an Italian-American area, Roman Catholic - that's who I am. And a part of what I know is there's a decency to people who tried to make a living in the kind of world that was around us and also the Skid Row area of the Bowery; it impressed me.
Martin ScorseseThere are movies that change the whole way in which films are made, like Klute, where Gordon Willisโs photography on the film is so textured, and, they said, too dark.
Martin ScorseseAlways get to the set or the location early, so that you can be all alone and draw your inspiration for the blocking and the setups in private and quiet.
Martin ScorseseI was rather shaken by all the green trees. I always am. It gets me. I don't want to be funny about it but I am. I loved seeing all the westerns, but I had asthma and couldn't go anywhere, but I loved watching them in Technicolor and seeing the cowboys and the landscapes of Monument Valley and you'd see the forests of the Anthony Mann films and think, 'wow, that's fantastic', but I could never go there!
Martin Scorsese