192 Quotes by Stanley Kubrick

You sit at the board and suddenly your heart leaps. Your hand trembles to pick up the piece and move it. But what chess teaches you is that you must sit there calmly and think about whether it’s really a good idea and whether there are other, better ideas.

The best education in film is to make one.

Anyone who has ever been privileged to direct a film also knows that, although it can be like trying to write ‘War and Peace’ in a bumper car in an amusement park, when you finally get it right, there are not many joys in life that can equal the feeling.

I’m just an old man and I smell bad, remember?

The whole idea of god is absurd. If anything, ‘2001’ shows that what some people call ‘god’ is simply an acceptable term for their ignorance. What they don’t understand, they call ‘god’ -Stanley Kubrick, interview, 1963.

You either connect or you don’t connect. It’s not the end of the world. It’s a movie.

You have not yet learned that in this life you have to be like everyone else: the perfect mediocrity – no better, no worse. Individuality is a monster and it must be strangled in its cradle to make our friends feel comfortable.

How could we possibly appreciate the Mona Lisa if Leonardo had written at the bottom of the canvas: ‘The lady is smiling because she is hiding a secret from her lover.’ This would shackle the viewer to reality, and I don’t want this to happen to 2001.

Here’s to five miserable months on the wagon and the irreparable harm that it’s caused me.