John Milius quotes

Egotism is not a good quality. It's not something to be admired or even tolerated. It wouldn't be tolerated in a field commander and it shouldn't be tolerated in a movie director. (John Milius)
Films are always pretentious. There's nothing more pretentious than a filmmaker.
John Milius
Matter of fact, the style that people use today, I invented in a way.
John Milius
A lot of directors don't know what they want to do. Every director I've seen that was a good director that I've admired knew exactly what he wanted to do. They didn't sit there and think about it.
John Milius
I felt that the Star Wars series became very pretentious as time went on. Just heavy and leaden.
John Milius
You know, I find it very strange when movies that I made that were just excoriated - I mean that I was just vilified for - are now looked at as classics.
John Milius
Writing requires a great deal of skill, just like painting does. People don't want to learn those skills.
John Milius
Most artists think they're frauds anyway.
John Milius
Also, they don't understand - writing is language. The use of language. The language to create image, the language to create drama. It requires a skill of learning how to use language.
John Milius
I find that screenwriting is at best kind of a hackwork in some ways.
John Milius
I suppose when I started out I would have liked to have been the darling of critics or something, but everybody wants to be loved and admired. (John Milius)
The filmmakers always have a great level of control.
John Milius
A lot of people thought of me as a threat to Western civilization.
John Milius
There is a certain kind of respect for authenticity today that there wasn't back in the days when they did 'Cleopatra,' where everything looked like a giant motel. People want to have it be authentic in the look, and authentic in the way people behave.
John Milius
I've always been able to survive by writing, though.
John Milius
Everybody's a filmmaker today.
John Milius
I've always had trouble with authority.
John Milius
No, you're either born a writer, a storyteller, or you're not.
John Milius
I became a loner. I became a mountain man. A lot of those things are very good qualities and they help you do your work, help you be singular and keep the artistic integrity of your work intact, but they don't make it very easy to live your life.
John Milius