Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is frequently cited as one of the most influential filmmakers in cinematic history. Inspirational Stanley Kubrick quotes will challenge the way you think, and make your life worth living.
He went on to direct a number of acclaimed films, including Spartacus (1960), Lolita (1962), Dr. Strangelove (1964), A Clockwork Orange (1971), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), The Shining (1980), Full Metal Jacket (1987) and Eyes Wide Shut (1999).
Most Famous Stanley Kubrick Quotes
However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light. Stanley Kubrick
Bad films gave me the courage to try making a movie. Stanley Kubrick
Never say no to an idea you never know how that idea will ignite another idea. Stanley Kubrick
One man writes a novel. One man writes a symphony. It is essential that one man make a film. Stanley Kubrick
The truth of a thing is in the feel of it, not in the thick of it. Stanley Kubrick
.Perhaps it sounds ridiculous, but the best thing that young filmmakers should do is to get hold of a camera and some film and make a movie of any kind at all. Stanley Kubrick
The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent, but if we can come to terms with this indifference, then our existence as a species can have genuine meaning. However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light. Stanley Kubrick
If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed. Stanley Kubrick
The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good. Stanley Kubrick
A filmmaker has almost the same freedom as a novelist has when he buys himself some paper. Stanley Kubrick.
Either you care, or you don’t. There’s no in-between. And if you care, then go all of the way. Stanley Kubrick
The truth of a thing is in the feel of it, not in the think of it. Stanley Kubrick
Everything has already been done. Every story has been told, every scene has been shot. it’s our job to do it one better. Stanley Kubrick
There’s something in the human personality which resents things that are clear, and conversely, something which is attracted to puzzles, enigmas, and allegories. Stanley Kubrick
I do not always know what I want, but I do know what I don’t want. Stanley Kubrick
Don’t get obsessed with not liking a movie. Stanley Kubrick
If you really want to communicate something, even if it’s just an emotion or an attitude, let alone an idea, the least effective and least enjoyable way is directly. It only goes about an inch. But if you can get people to the point where they have to think for a moment what it is you’re getting at, and then discover it, the thrill of discovery goes right through the heart. Stanley Kubrick
I would not think of quarreling with your interpretation nor offering any other, as I have found it always the best policy to allow the film to speak for itself. Stanley Kubrick
The very meaninglessness of life forces man to create his own meaning. Stanley Kubrick
The best education in film is to make one. Stanley Kubrick
Be suspicious of people who have, or crave, power. Never, ever go near power. Don’t become friends with anyone who has real power. It’s dangerous. Stanley Kubrick
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. The Shining’, 1990
Man isn’t a noble savage, he’s an ignoble savage. He is irrational, brutal, weak, silly, unable to be objective about anything where his own interests are involved that about sums it up. I’m interested in the brutal and violent nature of man because it’s a true picture of him. And any attempt to create social institutions on a false view of the nature of man is probably doomed to failure. Stanley Kubrick
Nothing is as dangerous as a sure thing. Stanley Kubrick
You’re an idealist, and I pity you as I would the village idiot. Stanley Kubrick
Like the man said, can happiness buy money? Killer’s Kiss’, 1955.
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. Stanley Kubrick
You’re an idealist, and I pity you as I would the village idiot. Paths of Glory 1957
The great nations have always acted like gangsters, and the small nations like prostitutes. Stanley Kubrick
The man you stabbed in the back is a soldier. Paths of Glory 1957
If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed. Stanley Kubrick
He thinks I don’t have enough respect for him. He’s right. Paths of Glory’, 1957.
The dead know only one thing, it is better to be alive. Stanley Kubrick
Don’t you think he fits my shoes very well, your ladyship? Lord Bullingdon, Barry Lyndon 1975
The essence of dramatic form is to let an idea come over people without it being plainly stated. When you say something directly, it’s simply not as potent as it is when you allow people to discover it for themselves. Stanley Kubrick
I’m just an old man and I smell bad, remember? Stanley Kubrick
The feel of the experience is the important thing, not the ability to verbalize or analyze it. Stanley Kubrick
My reputation has grown slowly. Stanley Kubrick
If man merely sat back and thought about his impending termination, and his terrifying insignificance and aloneness in the cosmos, he would surely go mad or succumb to a numbing sense of futility. Why might he ask himself, should he bother to write a great symphony, or strive to make a living, or even to love another, when he is no more than a momentary microbe on a dust mote whirling through the unimaginable immensity of space? Stanley Kubrick
I never learned anything at all in school and didn’t read a book for pleasure until I was 19 years old. Stanley Kubrick
Take a stress pill and think things over HAL in 2001 Stanley Kubrick
This was some time before I had ever touched a movie camera and it opened my eyes to cutting and montage. Stanley Kubrick
There’s something in the human personality which resents things that are clear, and conversely, something which is attracted to puzzles, enigmas, and allegories. Stanley Kubrick
Gee, I wish we had one of them doomsday machines things. Stanley Kubrick
A film is or should be more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what’s behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later. Stanley Kubrick
What do you take me for? A fourteen karat sucker? Stanley Kubrick
The destruction of this planet would have no significance on a cosmic scale: to an observer in the Andromeda nebula, the sign of our extinction would be no more than a match flaring for a second in the heavens: and if that match does blaze in the darkness there will be none to mourn a race that used a power that could have lit a beacon in the stars to light its funeral pyre. The choice is ours. Stanley Kubrick
I do not always know what I want, but I do know what I don’t want. Stanley Kubrick
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Stanley Kubrick
If you can talk brilliantly about a problem. Stanley Kubrick
Perhaps it sounds ridiculous, but the best thing that young filmmakers should do is to get hold of a camera and some film and make a movie of any kind at all. Stanley Kubrick
The very meaninglessness of life forces man to create his own meaning. Stanley Kubrick
I think the big mistake in schools is trying to teach children anything, and by using fear as the basic motivation. Fear of getting failing grades, fear of not staying with your class, etc. Interest can produce learning on a scale compared to fear as a nuclear explosion to a firecracker. Stanley Kubrick
Perhaps it sounds ridiculous, but the best thing that young filmmakers should do is to get hold of a camera and some film and make a movie of any kind at all.
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 shake the viewer to reality, and I don’t want this to happen to 2001. Stanley Kubrick
I don’t think that writers or painters or filmmakers function because they have something they particularly want to say. They have something that they feel. And they like the art form; they like words, or the smell of paint, or celluloid and photographic images and working with actors. I don’t think that any genuine artist has ever been oriented by some didactic point of view, even if he thought he was.
In any case, once you’re dealing on a nonverbal level, ambiguity is unavoidable. But it’s the ambiguity of all art, of a fine piece of music or a painting you don’t need written instructions by the composer or painter accompanying such works to ‘explain’ them. Explaining them contributes nothing but a superficial ‘cultural’ value which has no value except for critics and teachers who have to earn a living. Stanley Kubrick
I’ve never achieved spectacular success with a film. My reputation has grown slowly. I suppose you could say that I’m a successful filmmaker in that a number of people speak well of me. But none of my films have received unanimously positive reviews, and none have done blockbuster business.
It’s a mistake to confuse pity with love. Stanley Kubrick
The lasting and ultimately most important reputation of a film is not based on reviews, but on what, if anything, people say about it over the years, and on how much affection for it they have.
No philosophy based on an incorrect view of the nature of man is likely to produce social good. Stanley Kubrick
The screen is a magic medium. It has such power that it can retain interest as it conveys emotions and moods that no other art form can hope to tackle.
I have always enjoyed dealing with a slightly surrealistic situation and presenting it in a realistic manner. I’ve always liked fairy tales, myths, and magical stories. I think they are somehow closer to the sense of reality one feels today than the equally stylized ‘realistic’ story in which a great deal of selectivity and omission has to occur in order to preserve its ‘realist’ style. Stanley Kubrick
I’ve got a peculiar weakness for criminals and artists. Neither takes life as it is. Any tragic story has to be in conflict with things as they are
Chess teaches you to control the initial excitement you feel when you see something that looks good and it trains you to think objectively when you’re in trouble Stanley Kubrick
Observation is a dying art.
Don’t get obsessed with not liking a movie. Stanley Kubrick
The essence of dramatic form is to let an idea come over people without it being plainly stated. When you say something directly, it’s simply not as potent as it is when you allow people to discover it for themselves.
You either connect or you don’t connect. It’s not the end of the world. It’s a movie. Stanley Kubrick
If you can talk brilliantly enough about a subject, you can create the consoling illusion it has been mastered.
The best education in film is to make one. Stanley Kubrick
If I did a hundred takes on every scene, I’d never finish a film. Lee Ermey, for instance, would spend every spare second with the dialogue coach, and he always knew his lines. I suppose Lee averaged eight or nine takes. He sometimes did it in three. Because he was prepared.
I don’t think that writers or painters or filmmakers function because they have something they particularly want to say. They have something that they feel. And they like the art form; they like words, or the smell of paint, or celluloid and photographic images and working with actors. I don’t think that any genuine artist has ever been oriented by some didactic point of view, even if he thought he was. Stanley Kubrick
All you can do is either pose questions or make truthful observations about human behavior. The only morality is not to be dishonest.
Like the man said, can happiness buy money? Stanley Kubrick
It’s crazy how you can get yourself in a mess sometimes and not even be able to think about it with any sense and yet not be able to think about anything else. Stanley Kubrick
Never, ever go near power. Don’t become friends with anyone who has real power. It’s dangerous. Stanley Kubrick
I love editing. I think I like it more than any other phase of filmmaking. If I wanted to be frivolous, I might say that everything that precedes editing is merely a way of producing film to edit. Stanley Kubrick
You know, Michael, it’s not absolutely true in every case that nobody likes a smart ass. Stanley Kubrick
I never learned anything at all in school and didn’t read a book for pleasure until I was 19 years old. Stanley Kubrick
Barry was born clever enough at gaining a fortune, but incapable of keeping one. For the qualities and energies which lead a man to achieve the first are often the very cause of his ruin in the latter case. Stanley Kubrick
There are few things more fundamentally encouraging and stimulating than seeing someone else die. Stanley Kubrick
A film is or should be more like music than like fiction. Stanley Kubrick
I will say that the God concept is at the heart of 2001 but not any traditional, anthropomorphic image of God. I don’t believe in any of Earth’s monotheistic religions, but I do believe that one can construct an intriguing scientific definition of God, once you accept the fact that there are approximately 100 billion stars in our galaxy alone, that each star is a life giving sun and that there are approximately 100 billion galaxies in just the visible universe. Stanley Kubrick
It’s crazy how you can get yourself in a mess sometimes and not even be able to think about it with any sense and yet not be able to think about anything else. Stanley Kubrick
You’re constantly changing, man. But the film’s not changing. The film stays the same. That’s the beautiful aspect of it. Stanley Kubrick Quotes
If man merely sat back and thought about his impending termination, and his terrifying insignificance and aloneness in the cosmos, he would surely go mad, or succumb to a numbing sense of futility. 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. Stanley Kubrick
Suppose by chance you do get picked up. What have you done? You shot a horse; that isn’t first degree murder; in fact, it isn’t even murder; in fact, I don’t know what it is. Stanley Kubrick
A film needs more than you can give it in a lifetime. Stanley Kubrick
If you can talk brilliantly about a problem. Stanley Kubrick
Some people demand a five line capsule summary. Something you’d read in a magazine. They want you to say, This is the story of the duality of man and the duplicity of governments.’ I hear people try to do it give the five line summary but if a film has any substance or subtlety, whatever you say is never complete, it’s usually wrong, and it’s necessarily simplistic: truth is too multifaceted to be contained in a five line summary. If the work is good, what you say about it is usually irrelevant. Stanley Kubrick
I didn’t want murder. It’s all gone wrong. Stanley Kubrick
The director’s job is to know what emotional statement he wants a character to convey in his scene or his line, and to exercise taste and judgment in helping the actor give his best possible performance. Stanley Kubrick
Critical opinion on my films has always been salvaged by what I would call subsequent critical opinion. Stanley Kubrick
The first really important book I read about filmmaking was The Film Technique by Pudovkin. This was some time before I had ever touched a movie camera and it opened my eyes to cutting and montage. Stanley Kubrick
I, uh, don’t think it’s quite fair to condemn a whole program because of a single slip up, sir. Stanley Kubrick
I used and abused drugs and alcohol. When I stopped doing that it became a lot clearer that life goes from inside to giving as opposed to taking and destroying. Stanley Kubrick
What do you take me for? A fourteen karat sucker? Stanley Kubrick
If you can talk brilliantly about a problem, it can create the consoling illusion that it has been mastered. Stanley Kubrick
How does anybody ever think of anything? Stanley Kubrick
The hardest thing in making a movie is to keep in the front of your consciousness your original response to the material. Because that’s going to be the thing that will make the movie. And the loss of that will break the movie. Stanley Kubrick
A film is or should be more like music than like fiction. Stanley Kubrick
