30 Quotes by George Stevens

It’s fine if you want a system that shows a boa constrictor to better advantage than a man.

The camera is not the instrument. People are always the instrument.

Three takes. You're either going to get it, or you're not going to get it. There's no use persisting; it just had to work that way.

I was fascinated by all of it. The sounds of the theater and the audience, their rapture when a play took over and moved them and held them quietly... When the audience was truly moved, it was absolutely quiet. They were in a communion because they were learning the truth about themselves.

In most Westerns, you know, people are shooting off guns all the time until you don't even notice it anymore.

I was on a picture for four or five days, had an opportunity to be on a set, and the assistant cameraman kept showing me things. One day I climbed the fence, knowing they needed an assistant cameraman. A couple of days later, I was one. The first day or two, it was pretty disastrous, but I knew something about photography, and I caught on quick.

I'm interested in all the new ideas, such as 3-D and widescreen, but I don't believe the technical method of presentation is the real important thing.

Only the picture matters. It's what goes on the screen that counts.

I personally like to see films that are the work of as singular a consciousness as possible.