Ang Lee

Ang Lee

31 quotes

Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee (b. 1954) is someone whose language could distill vast ideas into a single sentence. Beyond their emotional charge and exploration of repressed, hidden emotions, Ang Lee proved equally skilled at capturing ideas in a sentence or two. Our collection holds 37 quotes from Ang Lee, each offering a different angle on Movies, Work, Money, Truth, and Romantic. Here is a taste of their wisdom: "I don't have incredible knowledge about films or of filmmaking history I'm not that kind of person."

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“I'm actually living my life with the material I choose to work with.”

— Ang Lee

Work

All Quotes by Ang Lee

“Over the years Woodstock got glorified and romanticised and became the event that symbolised Utopia. It's the last page of our collective memory of the age of innocence. Then things turned ugly and would never be the same again.”

— Ang Lee

Age

“The source of all the material comes from nothingness, illusion is working more on things you can prove. That's the principle, the essence of life, it is actually an illusion, not immaterial. That's worth pursuing. So illusion is not nothing. In a way, that is the truth.”

— Ang Lee

Truth

“I hope people don't compare 2D and 3D because 3D's new, it's unfair to compare to 2D which is really sophisticated, even when we're jaded about it. 3D just began, give it a chance, let the equipment and projection system catch up and be better, let the price go down, let more filmmakers get a hold of it more easily.”

— Ang Lee

Hope

“I don't have incredible knowledge about films or of filmmaking history I'm not that kind of person.”

— Ang Lee

History

“Sexuality is a big issue, but there are others - how much you commit to a relationship, to social obligation, to honesty and being honest with yourself.”

— Ang Lee

Relationship

“I look at American movies, the big muscles, and try to apply that to Chinese film-making.”

— Ang Lee

Movies

“The fear factor actually brings the genuineness.”

— Ang Lee

Fear

“I think each movie-making process is a very exhausting and satisfying and fulfilling experience for me.”

— Ang Lee

Experience

“You can get rich or famous by doing the same thing.”

— Ang Lee

Famous

“I did a women's movie, and I'm not a woman. I did a gay movie, and I'm not gay. I learned as I went along.”

— Ang Lee

Women

“Economically, it's more expensive to make movies. I hope digital movies change that.”

— Ang Lee

Change

“I think a lot of people do big movies not because they are talented artists but because they can function in the circumstances.”

— Ang Lee

Movies

“The father figure is something I love, but also suffocate from and want to work against.”

— Ang Lee

Work

“I'm just a pretty regular dad.”

— Ang Lee

Dad

“In the past I've made movies that were pretty universally liked. You can't really hate them. You can discard them, but you can't really hate them.”

— Ang Lee

Movies

“I'm not a romantic. In life I didn't have much experience with romance.”

— Ang Lee

Experience

“I think I can work with any type of actor.”

— Ang Lee

Work

“When I grew up, in Taiwan, the Korean War was seen as a good war, where America protected Asia. It was sort of an extension of World War II. And it was, of course, the peak of the Cold War. People in Taiwan were generally proAmerican. The Korean War made Japan. And then the Vietnam War made Taiwan. There is some truth to that.”

— Ang Lee

Truth

“Sensitivity and money are like parallel lines. They don't meet.”

— Ang Lee

Money

“When I sent those scripts, that was the lowest point of my life. We'd just had our second son, and when I went to collect them from hospital, I went to the bank to try and get some money to buy some diapers, the screen showed I've got $26 left.”

— Ang Lee

Money