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."

“These days I'm mostly familiar with two parts of L.A.: one is movie culture, and the other is Asian culture. The Westside is work, and the Eastside is Chinese - which means my friends.”

— Ang Lee

Work

All Quotes by Ang Lee

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

— Ang Lee

Experience

“Thinking back to those earlier days, I felt I was weak when I wasn't making movies, and then when I was, I thought I was weak as a family member.”

— Ang Lee

Family

“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

“Summer blockbusters are very expensive to make. They have things that have to be expensive, such as 600 effects shots or CG characters that have to go a certain way, or a film design that is different but expensive.”

— Ang Lee

Design

“I have a lot of repression. So repression is what I make movies about.”

— Ang Lee

Movies

“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

“I'm just a pretty regular dad.”

— Ang Lee

Dad

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

— Ang Lee

Famous

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

— Ang Lee

Change

“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

“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 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

“After making several tragic movies in a row, I was looking to do a comedy, and one without cynicism.”

— Ang Lee

Movies

“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

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

— Ang Lee

Money

“These days I'm mostly familiar with two parts of L.A.: one is movie culture, and the other is Asian culture. The Westside is work, and the Eastside is Chinese - which means my friends.”

— Ang Lee

Work

“The fear factor actually brings the genuineness.”

— Ang Lee

Fear

“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

“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