97 Quotes by William Friedkin

The thing that interests me is the good and evil in everybody. I don’t have conventional heroes in the films that I directed, because I believe there’s good and evil in everybody.

But the audience is right. They’re always, always right. You hear directors complain that the advertising was lousy, the distribution is no good, the date was wrong to open the film. I don’t believe that. The audience is never wrong. Never.

I believe it’s true that there’s good and evil in everyone and it’s a constant struggle to have your better angels prevail.

One of my themes is that there is good and evil in everyone. I was not out to make these guys heroes. I really don’t believe in heroes. The best of people have a dark side and it’s a constant struggle for the better side to survive and to thrive.

I tend to be attracted to characters who are up against a wall with very few alternatives. And the film then becomes an examination of how they cope with very few options. And that’s, I guess, what interests me in terms of human behavior.

You don’t leave the film alone. You have a new audience, and you have a new medium. Why would you leave it alone? Film is not an antique. It’s not a relic. It’s not a Leonardo da Vinci. I don’t want someone painting over a da Vinci or Rembrandt. But these movies aren’t that.

The first work of the director is to set a mood so that the actor’s work can take place, so that the actor can create. And in order to do that, you have to communicate, communicate with the actors. And direction is about communication on all levels.

I can’t sit through the superhero films. But I watched Draft Day, and it was kind of sweet in an old-fashioned way.

Style is something that’s extremely important, but it must grow naturally out of who and what you are and what the material calls for. It cannot be superimposed.