45 Quotes by Sidney Lumet

That's the only part of 'Network' that hasn't happened yet, and that's on its way.

We're all, and I include myself in this, big snobs about action heroes, we relegate them. It's what we used to do with beautiful actresses ... if you're an action hero and a star it means you cannot act - and all of this despite the fact that we know different.

We all have a prejudice about action films. It's sort of like, if they're beautiful and blonde, she can't act, and we should know better by now. I've heard it from people, 'What are you doing, doing a picture with Vin Diesel?' They're not giving him the credit he deserves. Sometimes, I just say, 'Wait till you see him in the picture.

I knew I wasn't buying a pig in a poke. I knew how good he was.

Galvin uses the word 'faith' several times in his summation to the jury, ... He says, 'In my faith, we are told you have only to act as if you have faith and faith will be given you.... You have only to act with justice,' and so on. He is using 'faith' absolutely synonymously with 'love.'

I don't know how to choose work that illuminates what my life is about. I don't know what my life is about and don't examine it. My life will define itself as I live it. The movies will define themselves as I make them. As long as the theme is something I care about at the moment, it's enough for me to start work. Maybe work itself is what my life is about.

Dolby was in the driver's seat. "Surround Sound" was added. Now we had three speakers behind the screen, two more on the left side of the theater, and two on the right. A closely guarded secret about all this is that you hear the correct balance only if you're sitting in the center of the theater. On the left or right side, those speakers tend to dominate.

If I don't have a script I adore, I do one I like. If I don't have one I like, I do one that has an actor I like or that presents some technical challenge.

There's a powerful magic about being a writer that I still marvel at.