226 Quotes by Peter Greenaway

There are many photos of Eisenstein. I think he was quite vain, and he liked photos of him. Being a virgin at 33 is strange now, but let’s not be too high-minded about that.

I would be curious about one of those Jane Austen women – you know – long-suffering, dutiful – but all right in the end – a plump 19th century type, five foot four, ringlets, brown eyes, long fingers.

We all know that we’re going to die, but we don’t know when. That’s not a blessing, that’s a curse.

I don’t believe that one has to tear down the cinema screen in order to renew cinema. But new input and new energy are lacking. They are flowing above all into the television technologies. We must, therefore, concentrate on the CD-ROM.

I also think that everyone has an elitist approach to his own art, a complex knowledge of it, whether he is a clockmaker or an engineer. And I think it’s perfectly legitimate to make use of this knowledge because it enriches the overall texture of life.

You should be allowed to rub out and start again, it means that you are human. The purists are tedious, they tell you a mistake is like an enduring black mark. Nonsense – better to be human than some infernal machine never going wrong.

In a world where we can all be our own filmmakers, the old elites are disappearing and there is no desire to look at somebody else’s dream anymore because you can go off and make your own.

I can’t think of anyone who has done anything remotely useful after the age of 80.

The Sistine Chapel is an extraordinary work of education – it lays out all the early books of the Bible.