All art is autobiographical; the pearl is the oyster's autobiography.

Prefer what intuition whispers in your ear to what you have done and redone ten times in your head.

Perhaps our capacity to create is evidence that we ourselves were created in the image and likeness of God.

The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.

My films must let every man, woman, and child know that God loves them, that I love them, and that peace and salvation will become a reality only when they all learn to love each other.

My ministry has been to make religious movies and to get more people to read the Bible than anyone else ever has.

I am just a simple man, standing alone with my old brushes, asking God for inspiration.

I want to know how God created this world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts; the rest are details.

Art lost its basic creative drive the moment it was separated from the glory of God.

Tones sound and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes.

God is really another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant, and the cat. He has no real style. He just goes on trying other things.

God is truth and light his shadow.

The darker the night, the brighter the stars, The deeper the grief, the closer is God!

I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.

At the moment of commitment, the entire universe conspires to assist you.

More than ninety percent of directing a picture is the right casting.

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.

Sometimes I do get to places just when God's ready to have someone click the shutter.

You walk in, plant yourself squarely on both feet, look the other fella in the eye, and tell the truth.

The best actors don’t let the wheels show.

A film is – or should be – more like music than fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings.

Tell your own story, and you will be interesting. Don't get the green disease of envy. Don't be fooled by success and money. Don't let anything come between you and your work.

Cinema should make you forget you’re sitting in a theatre.

In order to win a man to your cause, you must first reach his heart, the great high road to his reason.

I try to catch and convey the idea that we have a soul and that the soul is in contact with God. That's the first thing I want to accomplish in my films.

I should be sorry if I only entertained them, I wish to make them better.

Throughout the world sounds one long cry from the heart of the artist: Give me the chance to do my very best.

A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.

Lord, let me always desire more than I think I can do.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart…

I have a terrible need of – dare I say the word? – religion. Then I go out at night to paint the stars...

My only objective is to paint a Christ so moving that those who see him will be converted.

Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood…

Cinema is universal, beyond flags and borders and passports.

I would travel down to hell and wrestle a film away from the devil if it was necessary.

We don’t make movies to make more money. We make money to make more movies.

Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.

A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet.

I try to push ideas away, and the ones that will not leave me alone are the ones that ultimately end up happening.

I don’t try to guess what a million people will like. It’s hard enough to know what I like.

Being an artist means not having to avert one’s eyes.

You have to be able to find something that you love enough to be able to take risks.

Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.

I have no interest in art that is sub-cultural, created for the sake of an enclave. I’m interested in art that is made for the life of the world.

When everything gets answered, it's fake.

Instead of relying on star names, we pinned our faith in stories that had something to say.

We, by our arts, may be called the grandsons of God.

Films are like dreams, and storytelling in films cannot be expected to follow a predictable pattern.

A wide screen just makes a bad film twice as bad.

A story should have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order.

All artists are equal when they are themselves.

Before you say ‘Cut’, wait five more seconds.

The process of filmmaking is so difficult, there’s no point in doing it unless you can do it the way you want.

Don't tell me what I'm doing; I don't want to know.

I thought drama was when the actors cried. But drama is when the audience cries.

When I looked at life through the camera, I felt I could finally see.

You have to live spherically - in many directions. Never lose your childish enthusiasm and things will come your way.

A movie is a little like a question, and when you make it, that’s when you get the answer.

Good directors don’t answer questions with their work. They generate debate and create discussion.

"I have the joy of storytelling in me. I would invent anything if necessary to help you rise above your existence into the realm of something sublime, something horrifying, something of great beauty."

How else but through a broken heart / May Lord Christ enter in?

The negative is the score; the print is the performance.

The only thing an actor has to offer a director and finally an audience is his instinct. That's all.

"Everyone wants to understand art. Why not try to understand the songs of a bird?"