The Wisdom of our Great Directors

If you haven't had a chance to pick up the 20th Anniversary Edition of Empire, do so. It's very classy and has kept me busy this whole week. It includes reflections from its writers/editors/photographers, the movies that "make" Empire, a Lord of the Rings retrospective, as well as Empire "icons" - actors who grew up or did their most important work during Empire's tenure. One of my favorite feature of the magazine is the "Directors of Our Lifetime", which highlights the best directors and selected quotes from their past interviews with Empire. The list includes: Tarantino, Spielberg, Fincher, Scorsese, Greengrass, Jackson, Coen Bros., Nolan, Boyle, Lucas and more. Here are some of my favorite quotes from some of my favorite directors both of my lifetime and all time.

"A movie like Fight Club is always going to come under attack from fucking pussies... violence between consenting adults is a healthy thing." - David Fincher

"I'm not from the Mike Leigh school. I want to reach the widest audience possible." - Christopher Nolan

"I want every one of my movies, even 20 years down the line, to have the same piss and vinegar, the same hard fucking dick as Reservoir Dogs. There can be no fuck-up, no weak link, no blank in the chamber for the kid to discover." - QT

"There's a point editing a film when you get really tired of it. I never got tired of Goodfellas" - who do you think?

"I don't like the name 'the Movie Brats' that much. I wish they'd called us 'the Movie Nerds'" - Steven Spielberg

and Paul Greengrass names Ken Loach as his favorite director which is awesome.