John Milius Quotes

There is a certain kind of respect for authenticity today that there wasn't back in the days when they did 'Cleopatra,' where everything looked like a giant motel. People want to have it be authentic in the look, and authentic in the way people behave.

I may not be the strongest guy or the most well armed, but you can put me in a room with a pencil and a piece of paper and I can kill anybody.

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

Most artists think they're frauds anyway.

To be a good executive you have to be strong, and you have to have a simple attribute that people have forgotten about - courage.

I suppose when I started out I would have liked to have been the darling of critics or something, but everybody wants to be loved and admired.

I mean, the old film critics just excoriated me.

I've always had trouble with authority.

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

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.

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

The filmmakers always have a great level of control.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

I was never conscious of my screenplays having any acts. It's all bullshit.

I also thought of myself as the Sonny Barger of the film industry.

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

The people that really pass judgment on you really have nothing to do with what you do, usually.

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

I'm the barbarian of Hollywood.

Writing requires a great deal of skill, just like painting does.

People don't want to learn those skills.