51 Quotes by James Ivory

I've seen it happen with other directors. Sometimes there's a period where, if they're lucky, they get the financing where they can make two films in a year.

You know, if the filmmakers were satisfied with the film they just made, they could jump right in and make another one, instead of lingering on the last one.

See, nobody understood how we were able to make a film like 'A Room With a View' so cheaply, for about $3.2 million, and have it look as good as it did.

I've never had to search for themes. My films just come naturally out of my interest.

Mind you, as a little boy, I always had other interests from most kids. I was not a boy who rubbed around baseball bats. I always had the storytelling instinct, even as a child. I was a very imaginative little boy.

My father built me a theatre behind the house where I could put on plays. Dear me, I'm making it sound a bit grand, and it wasn't an amphitheatre or anything like that, just a little place with a roll-up curtain box and I'm sure the plays were childish lopsided things.

I was constantly going to the movies. My parents let me see whatever I wanted to and they only pulled me out of one movie in my life. That was 'Gunga Din' and they thought it was too violent.

I think you can study too much. I've seen that happen. Young people get immersed in the work of other directors and end up imitating them rather than finding their own identity.

In 'A Room With a View' there's a lovely scene with Julian Sands and Helena Bonham-Carter in a wheat field. It was simply the right time of day: late afternoon, that golden light, wheat and poppies... So romantic. But I had no idea it would turn out that well, since we so rarely shoot in a studio.