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[action's] A Western Thing. We Think Of The Hero Going Into Battle, Rebelling Against A Government Or An Oppressor, But [in Kundun] Action Is Nonaction Or What Appears To Be Nonaction. That's A Hard Concept For Western Audiences. . . . We Wanted To Show A Kind Of Moral Action, A Spiritual Action, An Emotional Action. Some People Will Pick Up On It; Some Won't.

-Martin Scorsese

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[action's] A Western Thing.

Martin Scorsese

...

[action's] A Western Thing. We Think Of The Hero Going Into Battle, Rebelling Against A Government Or An Oppressor, But [in Kundun] Action Is Nonaction Or What Appears To Be Nonaction. That's A Hard Concept For Western Audiences. . . . We Wanted To Show A Kind Of Moral Action, A Spiritual Action, An Emotional Action. Some People Will Pick Up On It; Some Won't.

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Pursuit Of Happiness

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My Films Really Have To Be A Part Of A Whole Body Of Work That Says Something To Me.

Parts Of A Whole

Our World Is So Glutted With Useless Information, Images, Useless Images, Sounds, All This Sort Of Thing. It's A Cacophony, It's Like A Madness I Think That's Been Happening In The Past Twenty-five Years. And I Think Anything That Can Help A Person Sit In A Room Alone And Not Worry About It Is Good.

My Father Had This Mythological Sense Of The Old New York, And He Used To Tell Me Stories About These Old Gangs, Particularly The Forty Thieves In The Fourth Ward.

I Just Wanted To Be An Ordinary Parish Priest.

I've Been Extremely Lucky To Work With Elmer Bernstein, Howard Shore Over The Years, But I've Always Imagined Films With My Own Scores, Because I Don't Come From That World Or That Period Of Filmmaking. And So How Could I Make Up My Own Score On A Film Like This Where It Isn't Necessarily Made Up Of Popular Music From The Radio Or The Period; It Isn't Necessarily Classical Music. But What If It's Modern Symphonic Music?

Any Film, Or To Me Any Creative Endeavour, No Matter Who You're Working With, Is, In Many Cases, A Wonderful Experience.

Sometimes God Picks You Up And Tells You, "you've Been Messing Around Now. You're Going To Have To Stop This, Stop That, But I'll Give You Another Chance." And You Wonder Why You're Given Another Chance. It Must Be For Something; It Must Be To Celebrate Life.

Movies Touch Our Hearts, And Awaken Our Vision, And Change The Way We See Things. They Take Us To Other Places. They Open Doors And Minds. Movies Are The Memories Of Our Lifetime. We Need To Keep Them Alive.

I Would Ask: Given The Nature Of Free-market Capitalism - Where The Rule Is To Rise To The Top At All Costs - Is It Possible To Have A Financial Industry Hero? And By The Way, This Is Not A Pop-culture Trend We're Talking About. There Aren't Many Financial Heroes In Literature, Theater Or Cinema.

Popular Music Formed The Soundtrack Of My Life.

Well The Thing Is That The New York Of 1846 To 1862 Was Very Different From Downtown New York Now. Really Nothing From That Period Still Exists In New York.

I Do Know That Some Buddhists Are Able To Attain Peace Of Mind.

Film In The 20th Century, It's The American Art Form, Like Jazz.

I Was Saying As A Joke The Other Day That I Love Film Editing, I Know How To Cut A Picture, I Think I Know How To Shoot It, But I Don't Know How To Light It. And I Realize It's Because I Didn't Grow Up With Light. I Grew Up In Tenements.

The Most Important Thing Is The Script.

Alcohol Decimated The Working Class And So Many People.

For Me, The Key Image Is The Boat Coming Through The Fog At The Beginning. It's Something I Imagined And Liked And I Guess There Are Other References In Other Films I Make - The Similar Type Of Image. But I Think It's Interesting, It's Breaking Through The Mystery, Or Maybe It Stays In The Fog... We Don't Really Know. Where Is He At The Beginning Of The Film, Who Is He?

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