79 Quotes by Michael Cimino

There is always that need to feel that you're doing your possible best.

Even the details of a rifle, which are nothing but mechanical, if they are made carefully, with attention, become beautiful, satisfying.

What distinguishes Vilmos Zsigmond from other cinematographers is, of course, talent but, more, physical stamina. You just can't be great without it.

On a movie, you often work fourteen-, sixteen-hour days, six days a week, for six months. It is so easy to let up because of fatigue.

All of those years, I felt like 'Heaven's Gate' was a beautiful, fantastically colored balloon tied to a string fastened to my wrist, so the balloon could never fly.

It's one of the things that movies do offer you, despite all of their hardships - they offer you moments of transcendence.

A film maker's energy and creativity don't have to end when he turns over his film.

Being infamous is not fun. It becomes a weird occupation in and of itself.

'Leaving Las Vegas' is a relationship; 'Dead Man Walking' is a relationship, and they're very contained movies. They're compressed and not in wide open spaces all over the place.