John Milius Quotes

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John Milius

Profession : Director

Birth : April 11, 1944

Most of the good executives do pretty well. Because to be a good executive you have to be strong, and you have to have a simple attribute that people have forgotten about - courage.

John Milius

Everybody's a filmmaker today.

John Milius

I've always been able to survive by writing, though.

John Milius

I hardly said a word to my wife until I said 'yes' to divorce.

John Milius

Yeah, I think that's it... It's like Jesse James. He became really popular because he lasted so long. You know, there is some degree of truth to the fact that time will dignify anything, too.

John Milius

A lot of directors don't know what they want to do. Every director I've seen that was a good director that I've admired knew exactly what he wanted to do. They didn't sit there and think about it.

John Milius

You know, I find it very strange when movies that I made that were just excoriated - I mean that I was just vilified for - are now looked at as classics.

John Milius

A lot of people thought of me as a threat to Western civilization.

John Milius

You never know when you're going to be considered un-hip... The people that really pass judgment on you really have nothing to do with what you do, usually.

John Milius

Egotism is not a good quality. It's not something to be admired or even tolerated. It wouldn't be tolerated in a field commander and it shouldn't be tolerated in a movie director.

John Milius

The filmmakers always have a great level of control.

John Milius

I've always had trouble with authority.

John Milius

'm a general, I do something. I go out and fight wars and win them.

John Milius

Yeah, there's absolutely. I mean, remember when The Searchers came out, it was a relatively big hit for a Western, and I think it made 5 million bucks - I don't even think it made that.

John Milius

I find that screenwriting is at best kind of a hackwork in some ways.

John Milius

Matter of fact, the style that people use today, I invented in a way.

John Milius

Also, they don't understand - writing is language. The use of language. The language to create image, the language to create drama. It requires a skill of learning how to use language.

John Milius

Writing requires a great deal of skill, just like painting does. People don't want to learn those skills.

John Milius

I felt that the Star Wars series became very pretentious as time went on. Just heavy and leaden.

John Milius

No, you're either born a writer, a storyteller, or you're not.

John Milius