Anton Corbijn Quotes

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Anton Corbijn

Profession : Director

Birth : May 20, 1955

For many years I wanted to do a film, but I never had the courage to clear my desk and say, 'OK I'll take a year off and do a film.'

Anton Corbijn

I am a village boy, and Amsterdam for me was always the big town.

Anton Corbijn

I wanted to move away from Holland for my work because I felt that things would be better for me in England. But when I heard Joy Division's 'Unknown Pleasures', that pushed me towards making the move and making it real. I met them within 12 days of moving to England.

Anton Corbijn

In England, I'm already labeled a rock photographer, which is a little insulting, because I'm not a rock photographer at all.

Anton Corbijn

I wanted to do a film for a while, but I never found a script that I felt I was going to be the right person for; because if you've never made a film, you're not taught how to make a film, and you feel like you lack skills.

Anton Corbijn

I've finally become an old guy.

Anton Corbijn

I have such a love of good music that I find even melancholic music uplifting. Maybe I'm a rare breed.

Anton Corbijn

I feel a responsibility to myself, and not so much for the world at large. Because of my Calvinistic upbringing, I was trained to think that what you do has to have a purpose.

Anton Corbijn

I'm not totally blind to the fact that I like people to see my work, but if it's not something I would enjoy seeing in a magazine, then I think I shouldn't be making it. I think that I don't represent only myself, I represent more people; I mean, if I like it, then I think more people will like it because I think I'm quite a normal guy.

Anton Corbijn

If you're an artist, it's OK to put your money into your art. The advantage, in hindsight, is that you become the film, and the film becomes you; you breathe it.

Anton Corbijn

My first pictures are from 1972, and my first proper camera dates back to 1973. During the first year I used my father's camera. It had a flash on it, which I don't like, but I didn't know anything about photography back then, so it was just what I did.

Anton Corbijn

I think if you don't feel passionate about the first movie you're doing, in the end the project will lack something because you don't have enough experience to make the movie something special.

Anton Corbijn

Mandela is just the eternal man. You want that man to be around forever. It's the closest thing we have to God, I think. He's the father of mankind, almost.

Anton Corbijn

I do have an ego, but I acknowledge the help I get.

Anton Corbijn

I didn't make music videos in order to make a movie. Music videos were the goal for me, so it was never a step to something else. I approached it seriously.

Anton Corbijn

'Control' had to do with my own life a lot, and that's why that seemed to be a film I could be the director of, because I had an emotional attachment to the whole story. And because of that experience, I feel that I can try other films. I didn't set out to become a director.

Anton Corbijn

Apart from photography and music videos, I also do graphic design.

Anton Corbijn

My photography changed from being more documentary-like to arranging things more, and that came into being partly because I started doing music videos, and I incorporated some things from the music videos into my photography again, by arranging things more.

Anton Corbijn

A lot of scripts that I was given I didn't feel were right for me, because I didn't feel anything for them - I didn't feel like I was going to change in life and start directing.

Anton Corbijn

With a film, you try to keep your vision in it. I think with 'The American' and 'Control' I managed to do that.

Anton Corbijn