quotes by 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

"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 you can talk brilliantly about a problem, it can create the consoling illusion that it has been mastered."
— Stanley Kubrick

"The great nations have always acted like gangsters, and the small nations like prostitutes."
— 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

"The whole idea of god is absurd. If anything, '2001' shows that what some people call 'god' is simply an acceptable term for their ignorance. What they don't understand, they call 'god' -Stanley Kubrick, interview, 1963"
— Stanley Kubrick

"If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed."
— 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 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."
— 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

"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

"A filmmaker has almost the same freedom as a novelist has when he buys himself some paper."
— 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."
— Stanley Kubrick

"The whole idea of god is absurd. If anything, '2001' shows that what some people call 'god' is simply an acceptable term for their ignorance. What they don't understand, they call 'god' -= Stanley Kubrick, interview, 1963"
— Stanley Kubrick