Robert Rodriguez Quotes

What I love about new technology is that it really pushes the art. It really pushes it in a way that you can't imagine until you come up with the idea. It's idea-based. You can do anything.

Don't give me any money, don't give me any people, but give freedom, and I'll give you a movie that looks gigantic.

A lot of people who watch DVDs are people who are interested in, if not moviemaking, then creativity in general.

You ask any moviemaker what their favorite movie experience was, and they'll say it was one of the first ones, where everyone had to pitch in and do everything together, and you had to struggle.

The accidents are things that audiences always remember most, I've found on my own movies. The things that they like the most are the things that were just by accident. So you have to create a situation where nothing but accidents can happen the entire time.

That six or seven hours you have to be in bed with your eyes closed. What a waste!

People talk about immigration, but they won't talk about the corruption that actually exists between Mexico and the U.S.

I always wanted to be a stay-at-home dad making art, making movies.

If you want to be a rock star, you're not going to just walk on stage. You gotta go practice in the garage until your fingers bleed. I always say that - the same with writing and the same with filmmaking - if it's really your passion, you've just got to stick with it and do it.

I kind of like working fast.

Sometimes a movie series that becomes popular can be a blessing and curse because you get known for that. People don't give you a chance, after that... I'm a big proponent of getting somebody that you always admire and giving them a chance to do something else because they can redefine themselves.

Your mind just goes to the craziest idea to lure people into the theater, and then you write your script around those elements.

It [lighting the set up] is quite a process. It's like drawing. It's like being an artist. You pencil it in first, and then you ink it. When you're filming, it's like you're penciling it all in. You know where everything is going to go. But, that application of the final ink takes some time.

What could make my life better? Oh, if I could only find that magic bottle that lets you never have to sleep. I have so much stuff I wanna do, but... That six or seven hours you have to be in bed with your eyes closed. What a waste!

A lot of 3D movies have so much on the screen that you almost don't know where to look.

The studios don't finance anymore, they get outside funds.

You create superheroes to take care of problems that can't really be solved another way.

Anyone who can only write about themselves or their life experiences, in my mind, isn't a very good writer.

Ever director has at least 10 bad films in them.

Television series always have a lot of characters because you want people to identify with someone on the show, who will be your eyes.

Any time you do action and horror, you've always got to try to find a way to make it fresh for the audience, but also for yourself, and there are so many different ways to freak people out and create tension.

Only by seeking challenges can we hope to find the best in ourselves.

Yeah, I was always a big fan of noir.

Really, children will support anything that is empowering to them.

I realized that everything I do is fantasy, whether it is an adult movie or a kids movie.

It's rare for the studios to find a filmmaker who wants to make a family film. To find someone that has an idea, embraces it, has kids and wants to make something exciting - well, they don't see that too often.

Low budgets force you to be more creative. Sometimes, with too much money, time and equipment, you can over-think. My way, you can use your gut instinct.

I'm all about freedom in art. I'm from Texas, so when someone tells you which way to ride your horse, you think 'I'll just go to a different ranch. You guys are riding it backwards anyway.

I wish I could freeze time or go back in time and watch my kids grow up all over again because it is just going by too fast.

When you go off in the world and make your life, and you come back to your home town, and you find your old high-school friends driving in the same circles, doing the same things, that's what Hollywood's like. It's a little block, little town. It doesn't really grow or change.

When you use the same actors a lot, you get to know them and you realize that one movie can't explore all the talent that they have. You really have to give them several different kinds of roles, in completely different movies, to push them and to push yourself.

The only thing I ever wanted to do is never have to work a day in my life.

Data scientists are statisticians because being a statistician is awesome and anyone who does cool things with data is a statistician.

Don't look at all at what other people are doing. Think of what you're doing as completely fresh because if you imitate you're dead.

I don't think anyone can be more of a predator than a human being.

I was a cartoonist when I was at university, but I decided to go into movie making knowing that I could still draw by doing movies, design work, story boards, and such.

I do like strong women in my movies. I have five sisters, so I've just grown up with that model.

A movie goes from several stages, from idea to script. As you continue shooting, you will make some adjustments. You're constantly adjusting. It's like a piece of music. You're constantly trying to make it better.

Changing the game is a mindset.

I like to keep my budgets at a certain price when I work for someone else, and even more so now that I'm working for myself, and use new technologies to deliver films that look like they have high production levels.

Creative people are notoriously the slowest to adopt new technology.

Don't be told something is impossible. There's always a way.

I was from such a large family that when I first met my wife, I told her: 'You can go work outside of the house and I'll stay home and continue making my cartoon strips. Maybe I'll make some commercials nearby, you know I'll do anything locally, but I would love to just stay at home and raise the kids like I did when I was growing up.'

When you make an exploitation film, you always want to have a real issue. That's how they were always done.

I collect a lot of art.

People don't live in Austin to work, they work to live there.

Too many creative people don't wanna learn how to be technical, so what happens? They become dependent on technical people. Become technical. You can learn that. If you're creative and technical, you're unstoppable.

When you take technology and mix it with art, you always come up with something innovative.