Ang Lee quotes

I think the American West really attracts me because it's romantic. The desert, the empty space, the drama. (Ang Lee)
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. View quote
Ang Lee
When there is a strong woman character in a story - that always grabs me. View quote
Ang Lee
Sometimes, you have to get angry to get things done. View quote
Ang Lee
I think people are universal. View quote
Ang Lee
I think the book struck me in a few ways that I thought very interesting to pick it as my first martial arts film. It has a very strong female character and it was very abundant in classic Chinese textures. View quote
Ang Lee
When I have a full schedule like that, I don't see myself sitting there for a couple of months, doing the research, going through a painful process, it's just not my thing anymore. View quote
Ang Lee
Meanwhile, the Ice Storm was still in development, And that was something I really wanted to do, and frankly I don't think I was ready to do a big production like this. View quote
Ang Lee
On a Chinese film you just give orders, no one questions you. Here, you have to convince people, you have to tell them why you want to do it a certain way, and they argue with you. Democracy. View quote
Ang Lee
Now I'm kind of established as a director, I much prefer directing to writing. View quote
Ang Lee
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)
I wanted to shoot straight, mainstream, somehow off-beat. Not only realistic West, which is quite unfamiliar to the world's population - even to a lot of Americans. View quote
Ang Lee
So many times you see beautiful lovemaking scenes with a lot of exposure or an awkward lovemaking scene, but I think it's very rare that you see it private. View quote
Ang Lee
The way I go about a lovemaking scene is that we will talk about it during the rehearsing time. View quote
Ang Lee
My first instinct was to cast as close to the short story as possible, but then I realized that I needed actors who could go for it and that they had to function well as a couple in a love story. View quote
Ang Lee
Gradually I got tuned into the world - that happens on every movie. 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. View quote
Ang Lee
Mainstream films have occupied Hollywood but you can get bored very easily. It can be very repetitive and I think now we want something fresh and something inspiring and different, daring. The mainstream film is very expensive to make and it scares people. It's made for the worldwide audience, you have to please so many people, and the business men start running the movies rather than artists. This is back to the oldest way of Hollywood filmmaking, creating a fantasy, but it has been lost. It seems to take a foreign language film to recoup that ultimate movie viewing experience. View quote
Ang Lee
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. View quote
Ang Lee
To me, Ennis stands for the conservative side of America. He's the biggest homophobe in the whole movie - culturally and psychologically - but by the time he admits his feelings, it's too late. View quote
Ang Lee
Usually with this genre the first thing that happens is a good fight sequence to show that you're in good hands. So we broke that rule. I think a lot of that comes from the western audience. View quote
Ang Lee
I'm aware of what's missing from my life. (Ang Lee)
The most mysterious feminine factor, the existence that we men, we don't know. It's woman. It's feminine. That's what the sword is about. That's the symbolic meaning of the sword. View quote
Ang Lee
I took the name Green Destiny from - well there is such a sword called Green Destiny. It is green because you keep twisting it, it's an ancient skill, you keep twisting it and knocking it and twisting it until it is very elastic and light. View quote
Ang Lee
Directing, I get all kinds of inspiration. It's working with people. It's a lot more fun. View quote
Ang Lee
Sometimes films ignore other points of view because it's simpler to tell the story that way, but the more genuine and sympathetic you are to different points of view and situations, the more real the story is. View quote
Ang Lee