57 Quotes by Rithy Panh

Totalitarians always want to kill culture. But imagine life without football, Faulkner, or Bob Dylan. It's not life.

I wasn't predestined to be a filmmaker; this wasn't an obvious choice to me.

I think that, as a filmmaker, you're always making the same film, regardless of how many different stories you tell. This is the case for me, whether I'm making documentaries or fiction films.

When the Khmer Rouge reached Phnom Penh, the first thing they did was to evacuate the population. Then they took over. The point of a revolution is to bring justice to the people, so even if you don't have proof of sabotage, you manufacture it.

I left Cambodia when I was 12 or 13. I didn't really escape, but I needed to go away.

I have only one life, and I can't do all. If I do one thing well, I'm happy.

Evil has always been there; it's always a part of us. Evil is no big surprise. But what about the people who gave freely, who stood up for human dignity? Even in the most extreme and terrible situations, these acts of dignity existed. And for me, that is the banality of good.

I have never been political in a partisan sense.

We must be capable of writing our own history.