Quentin Tarantino Quotes

If I wasn't a film-maker, I'd be a film critic. It's the only thing I'd be qualified to do.

- Quentin Tarantino

Only, Critic, The Only Thing, Qualified

I'm a big collector of vinyl - I have a record room in my house - and I've always had a huge soundtrack album collection. So what I do, as I'm writing a movie, is go through all those songs, trying to find good songs for fights, or good pieces of music to layer into the film.

- Quentin Tarantino

Big, Through, Movie, Layer

Movies are my religion and God is my patron. I'm lucky enough to be in the position where I don't make movies to pay for my pool. When I make a movie, I want it to be everything to me; like I would die for it.

- Quentin Tarantino

Die, Lucky, Movie, Patron

CGI has fully ruined car crashes. Because how can you be impressed with them now? When you watch them in the '70s, it was real cars, real metal, real blasts. They're really doing it and risking their lives. But I knew CGI was gonna start taking over.

- Quentin Tarantino

Doing, CGI, Impressed, Risking

To be a novelist, all I need is a pen and a piece of paper.

- Quentin Tarantino

Need, Paper, Piece, Novelist

If I really considered myself a writer, I wouldn't be writing screenplays. I'd be writing novels.

- Quentin Tarantino

Myself, Writing, Considered, Screenplays

When I make a film, I am hoping to reinvent the genre a little bit. I just do it my way. I make my own little Quentin versions of them... I consider myself a student of cinema. It's almost like I am going for my professorship in cinema, and the day I die is the day I graduate. It is a lifelong study.

- Quentin Tarantino

Die, Study, Reinvent, Just Do It

To me, movies and music go hand in hand. When I'm writing a script, one of the first things I do is find the music I'm going to play for the opening sequence.

- Quentin Tarantino

Play, Go, Going, Sequence

I cannot get myself interested in video games. I've been given video game players and they just sit there connected to my TVs gathering dust until eventually I unplug them so I can put in another special-region DVD player.

- Quentin Tarantino

Game, Been, Another, Unplug

If you go out and see a lot of movies in a given year, it's really hard to come up with a top ten, because you saw a lot of stuff that you liked. A top 20 is easier. You probably get one masterpiece a year, and I don't think you should expect more than one masterpiece a year, except in a really great year.

- Quentin Tarantino

Year, Out, Liked, Top Ten

I've always considered myself a filmmaker who writes stuff for himself to do.

- Quentin Tarantino

Always, Himself, Considered, Writes

I always do an all-night horror marathon on Saturdays where we start at seven and go until five in the morning.

- Quentin Tarantino

Marathon, Always, Horror, Saturdays

It's a standard staple in Japanese cinema to cut somebody's arm off and have red water hoses for veins, spraying blood everywhere.

- Quentin Tarantino

Standard, Cut, Staple, Arm

I want to top expectations. I want to blow you away.

- Quentin Tarantino

Top, Want, Away, Blow

I got into Facebook late, and I think if you get into Facebook late, you tend to use it the right way, as opposed to the people who got into it sooner and friended everybody and now have a thousand friends. I keep it at about 80 or so, and they're all people I know. Just because I do a movie doesn't mean I friend everybody in it.

- Quentin Tarantino

Movie, Everybody, I Think, Right Way

Sergio Leone was a big influence on me because of the spaghetti westerns.

- Quentin Tarantino

Big, Spaghetti, Westerns, Big Influence

My mom took me to see Carnal Knowledge and The Wild Bunch and all these kind of movies when I was a kid.

- Quentin Tarantino

Kid, Kind, Took, Carnal

I've always thought my soundtracks do pretty good, because they're basically professional equivalents of a mix tape I'd make for you at home.

- Quentin Tarantino

Thought, Pretty, Always, Mix

I've always wanted to work with Warren Beatty.

- Quentin Tarantino

Always, Wanted, Beatty, Warren

Truth be told, actually, my favorite director of the Movie Brats was not Scorsese. Loved him. But my favorite director of the Movie Brats was Brian de Palma. I actually met De Palma right after I'd done 'Reservoir Dogs,' and I was very beside myself.

- Quentin Tarantino

Movie, Very, Scorsese, Beside

I'm probably only going to make 10 movies, so I'm already planning on what I'm going to do after that. That's why I'm counting them. I have two more left. I want to stop at a certain point. What I want to do, basically, is I want to write novels, and I want to write theatre, and I want to direct theatre.

- Quentin Tarantino

Why, Two, Direct, Novels

I want to write novels, and I want to write and direct theater.

- Quentin Tarantino

Want, Theater, Direct, Novels

Novelists have always had complete freedom to pretty much tell their story any way they saw fit. And that's what I'm trying to do.

- Quentin Tarantino

Pretty, Always, Novelists, Complete Freedom

None of my costume designers have ever been nominated for an Oscar 'cause I don't do period movies that have ball scenes with a hundred extras in them.

- Quentin Tarantino

Been, Oscar, Designers, Costume

My movies are painfully personal, but I'm never trying to let you know how personal they are. It's my job to make it be personal, and also to disguise that so only I or the people who know me know how personal it is. 'Kill Bill' is a very personal movie.

- Quentin Tarantino

Movies, Movie, Very, Painfully

I'm not a Hollywood basher because enough good movies come out of the Hollywood system every year to justify its existence, without any apologies.

- Quentin Tarantino

Year, Hollywood, Good Movies, Apology

I have a lot of Chinese fans who buy my movies on the street and watch them, and I'm OK with it. I'm not OK with it in other places, but if the government's going to censor me, then I want the people to see it in any way they can.

- Quentin Tarantino

Other, Buy, Lot, OK

I had so much fun doing Django, and I love westerns so much that after I taught myself how to make one, it's like, 'OK, now let me make another one now that I know what I'm doing.'

- Quentin Tarantino

Love, Doing, Another, OK

In the '50s, audiences accepted a level of artifice that the audiences in 1966 would chuckle at. And the audiences of 1978 would chuckle at what the audience of 1966 said was okay, too. The trick is to try to be way ahead of that curve, so they're not chuckling at your movies 20 years down the line.

- Quentin Tarantino

Ahead, Line, Curve, Chuckle

I wasn't trying to top Pulp Fiction with Jackie Brown. I wanted to go underneath it and make a more modest character study movie.

- Quentin Tarantino

Study, Movie, Fiction, Pulp

I don't think Pulp Fiction is hard to watch at all.

- Quentin Tarantino

Think, Watch, Fiction, Pulp

I will never do 'Pulp Fiction 2,' but having said that, I could very well do other movies with these characters.

- Quentin Tarantino

Other, Very, Having, Pulp

I was kind of excited about going to jail the first time and I learnt some great dialogue.

- Quentin Tarantino

Excited, Some, Going, Learnt

I don't really know if I'm writing the kind of roles that Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore would play. Jessica Lange on 'American Horror Story' is a little bit more my cup of tea.

- Quentin Tarantino

Play, Meryl, Roles, Jessica

I always write these movies that are far too big for any paying customer to sit down and watch from beginning to end, and so I always have this big novel that I have to adapt into a movie as I go.

- Quentin Tarantino

Beginning, Big, Movie, Sit

One of the privileges you have of living the life of an artist and creating your own world and everything is the fact that, in-between times, you can kind of spend them however you want. Because, you know, once you open up your candy store again, you're open for business. And you have to be responsible. You have to be available.

- Quentin Tarantino

Fact, However, Privileges, In-Between

'Django' was definitely the beginning of my political side, and I think 'Hateful Eight' is the... logical extension and conclusion of that. I mean, when I say conclusion, I'm not saying I'll never be political again, but, I mean, I think it's like, in a weird way, 'Django' was the question, and 'Hateful Eight' is the answer.

- Quentin Tarantino

I Think, Extension, Weird Way

I do feel that I need to do at least one more Western - I think you need to make three Westerns to call yourself a Western director.

- Quentin Tarantino

Think, Need, I Think, At Least One

I couldn't spell anything. I couldn't remember anything, but I could go to a movie and I knew who starred in it, who directed it, everything.

- Quentin Tarantino

Movie, Spell, Directed, Starred

I've always thought John Travolta is one of the greatest movie stars Hollywood has ever produced.

- Quentin Tarantino

Thought, Hollywood, Always, Produced

Digital presentation is just television in public; we're all just getting together and watching TV without pointing the remote control at the screen.

- Quentin Tarantino

Digital, Watching Tv, TV, Pointing

I don't really consider myself an American filmmaker like, say, Ron Howard might be considered an American filmmaker. If I'm doing something and it seems to me to be reminiscent of an Italian giallo, I'm gonna to do it like an Italian giallo.

- Quentin Tarantino

Doing, Like, Might, Filmmaker

There is such a thing as my kind of actor, and how well they pull off my dialogue is a very, very important part of it.

- Quentin Tarantino

Kind, Part, Very, Such A Thing

If there is something magic about the collaborations I have with actors it's because I put the character first.

- Quentin Tarantino

Character, Magic, About, Collaborations

A writer should have this little voice inside of you saying, Tell the truth. Reveal a few secrets here.

- Quentin Tarantino

Voice, Here, Reveal, Secrets

I think we spent 60-something million on 'Hateful Eight,' which is actually more than I wanted to spend, but we had weather problems. And I wanted to make it good.

- Quentin Tarantino

Think, I Think, Which, Hateful

I actually want to do a theatrical adaptation of 'Hateful Eight' because I actually like the idea of other actors having a chance to play my characters and see what happens from that.

- Quentin Tarantino

Play, Other, Theatrical, Hateful

Something stopped me in school a little bit. Anything that I'm not interested in, I can't even feign interest.

- Quentin Tarantino

Stopped, Little Bit, Bit, Not Interested

I have an idea for a Godzilla movie that I've always wanted to do. The whole idea of Godzilla's role in Tokyo, where he's always battling these other monsters, saving humanity time and again - wouldn't Godzilla become God? It would be called 'Living Under the Rule of Godzilla.'

- Quentin Tarantino

Other, Role, Battling, Tokyo

Dogs got personality. Personality goes a long way.

- Quentin Tarantino

Pet, Personality, Goes, Long Way

Violence is one of the most fun things to watch.

- Quentin Tarantino

Watch, Most, Things, Fun

I want to have the fun of doing anime and I love anime, but I can't do storyboards because I can't really draw and that's what they live and die on.

- Quentin Tarantino

Love, Die, Doing, Fun

I liked the idea of creating a new pop-culture, folkloric hero character that I created with 'Django' that I think's gonna last for a long time. And I think as the generations go on and everything, you know, my hope is it can be a rite of passage for black fathers and their sons. Like, when are they old enough to watch 'Django Unchained'?

- Quentin Tarantino

I Think, Passage, Fathers, Rite

I like it when somebody tells me a story, and I actually really feel that that's becoming like a lost art in American cinema.

- Quentin Tarantino

Art, Like, Becoming, Cinema

I come from a mixed family, where my mother is art house cinema and my father is B-movie genre cinema. They're estranged, and I've been trying to bring them together for all of my career to one degree or another.

- Quentin Tarantino

Father, Career, Been, Cinema

I just grew up watching a lot of movies. I'm attracted to this genre and that genre, this type of story, and that type of story. As I watch movies I make some version of it in my head that isn't quite what I'm seeing - taking the things I like and mixing them with stuff I've never seen before.

- Quentin Tarantino

Some, Before, Mixing, Version

Australian genre films were a lot of fun because they were legitimate genre movies. They were real genre films, and they dealt, in a way like the Italians did, with the excess of genre, and that has been an influence on me.

- Quentin Tarantino

Been, Italians, Films, Excess

I am a genre lover - everything from spaghetti western to samurai movie.

- Quentin Tarantino

I Am, Movie, Spaghetti, Western

Reservoir Dogs is a small film, and part of its charm was that it was a small film. I'd probably make it for $3 million now so I'd have more breathing room.

- Quentin Tarantino

Small, Breathing, More, Million

I look at 'Death Proof' and realize I had too much time.

- Quentin Tarantino

Death, Had, Too, Proof

Movies are not about the weekend that they're released, and in the grand scheme of things, that's probably the most unimportant time of a film's life.

- Quentin Tarantino

Weekend, About, Scheme, Released

I want to have more original-screenplay Oscars than anybody who's ever lived! So much, I want to have so many that - four is enough. And do it within ten films, all right, so that when I die, they rename the original-screenplay Oscar 'the Quentin.' And everybody's down with that.

- Quentin Tarantino

Die, Everybody, Anybody, Oscars

I don't believe you should stay onstage until people are begging you to get off. I like the idea of leaving them wanting a bit more.

- Quentin Tarantino

Like, Idea, Wanting, Leaving

Trying to make a feature film yourself with no money is the best film school you can do.

- Quentin Tarantino

Feature Film, Film School, Feature

My parents said, Oh, he's going to be a director someday. I wanted to be an actor.

- Quentin Tarantino

Actor, Going, Wanted, Oh

As a viewer, the minute I start getting confused, I check out of the movie. Emotionally, I'm severed.

- Quentin Tarantino

Confused, Getting, Viewer, Minute

'The Grand Budapest Hotel' is not really my thing, but I kind of loved it.

- Quentin Tarantino

Loved, Kind, Budapest, Hotel

When I'm writing something, I try not to get analytical about it as I'm doing it, as I'm writing it.

- Quentin Tarantino

Writing, Doing, Get, Analytical

When I'm doing a movie, I'm not doing anything else. It's all about the movie. I don't have a wife. I don't have a kid. Nothing can get in my way... I've made a choice, so far, to go on this road alone. Because this is my time. This is my time to make movies.

- Quentin Tarantino

Doing, Kid, Movie, My Time

I'm definitely not on Twitter. I do have a Facebook page and Facebook friends. It's a lot of fun, especially if you don't just start friending people you don't know.

- Quentin Tarantino

People, Start, Facebook, Twitter

The good ideas will survive.

- Quentin Tarantino

Ideas, Will, Survive, Good Ideas

I actually think one of my strengths is my storytelling.

- Quentin Tarantino

Think, Actually, Strengths

When people ask me if I went to film school I tell them, 'no, I went to films.'

- Quentin Tarantino

Movies, Tell, Films, Film School

I love Elmore Leonard. To me, True Romance is basically like an Elmore Leonard movie.

- Quentin Tarantino

Love, Romance, I Love, Basically

Everything I learned as an actor, I have basically applied to writing.

- Quentin Tarantino

Actor, Learned, Applied, Basically

My plan is to have a theatre in some small town or something and I'll be manager. Ill be the crazy old movie guy.

- Quentin Tarantino

Small, Some, Town, Plan

I'm a historian in my own mind.

- Quentin Tarantino

Mind, Own, My Own, Historian

Whatever's going on with me at the time of writing is going to find its way into the piece. If that doesn't happen, then what the hell am I doing? So if I'm writing 'Inglourious Basterds,' and I'm in love with a girl and we break up, that's going to find its way into the piece.

- Quentin Tarantino

Love, Doing, Break Up, Piece

I have loved movies as the number one thing in my life so long that I can't ever remember a time when I didn't.

- Quentin Tarantino

Life, My Life, One Thing, Number

All my movies are achingly personal.

- Quentin Tarantino

Movies, Personal

I'm very happy with the way I write. I think I do it good. But I've never really considered myself a writer.

- Quentin Tarantino

Think, I Think, Very, Considered

I steal from every movie ever made.

- Quentin Tarantino

Movie, Made, Ever, Steal

I don't believe in elitism. I don't think the audience is this dumb person lower than me. I am the audience.

- Quentin Tarantino

Think, Audience, Lower, Dumb

It's very important that every movie I do makes money because I want the people that had the faith in me to get their money back.

- Quentin Tarantino

Want, Very, Makes, Movie

I loved history because to me, history was like watching a movie.

- Quentin Tarantino

Me, Loved, Like, Movie

If you just love movies enough, you can make a good one.

- Quentin Tarantino

Love, Movies, Just, Enough

To me, America is just another market.

- Quentin Tarantino

Me, Just, Another, Market

L.A. is so big that if you don't actually live in Hollywood, you might as well be from a different planet.

- Quentin Tarantino

Big, Hollywood, Might, Planet

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