Quotes

We have 65 BAFTAs, 75 Oscars, $2 billion in assets and hundreds of millions in profits. And still Michael Eisner won't renew my contract.

All sophisticated investors understand that theatrical release [prints and advertising costs] have to be written off in the quarter you spend it and you realize revenue from home video and television in the next quarter.

Most of the executives who left Disney; Meg Whitman, Steve Burke, Joe Roth, Jeffrey Katzenberg; have all gone on to create wealth for themselves. Hopefully, [brother Bob Weinstein] and I will follow in that tradition.

A man can dream is all I can say.

Having kids has made me much more mature. The anger is gone. There's a sweetness there.

[on Mel Gibson] I know Mel, and he's basically a good guy. The Passion of the Christ (2004) is very tough on Jews, and I didn't hold back from telling him so--but he says I'm wrong about that. Before producing a film for Mel, I would have a very serious discussion with him, so that I could be absolutely certain that he has really changed. If someone is against blacks, Jews or Arabs, even if their hands were filled with gold, I would, in principle, never work with them.

The secret of making movies is having the strongest possible script.

[on his support for petitions to have gay men pardoned for sodomy in the UK] Stephen Fry and Benedict Cumberbatch have asked for petitions to get 49,000 men who were arrested just for their sexual preference, no other reason, and while Alan Turing was pardoned by the Queen in 2013 there's been a law on the books [in the UK] for 60 years [they actually go back to the Buggery Act of 1533 under Henry VIII] that got repealed in the '70s [it was actually 1967], so Matt Damon, Harry Styles, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Julian Fellowes, just so many people have signed this petition which will be presented to Her Majesty's government as well as the Royal Family in an effort to pardon these 49,000 people who were jailed for no other reason. Big injustice, so you see the Pride (2014) thing and then you see The Imitation Game (2014), it doesn't seem to have quite gone away, not as simple as that.

[in September 2017] One of my favorite films that I ever distributed is Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master (2012). Believe me, it'll live in history long after most celluloid fades. When you watch it and then watch something like John Huston's documentary Let There Be Light (1980), the subtext of "The Master" is understanding an entire generation's need--especially World War II veterans--to find some sort of peace from the horrors of war. Some people decided to lead normal lives, some drank, and some found deep religion. In the case of "The Master", they turned to a cult to heal pain. It's more complicated than that, of course, but I bring it up because it's a daring and fantastic movie that people frequently remark about when they see me. And that movie got an "F" Cinemascore--so what? Apparently so did Mother! (2017). "Mother!" is another one of these movies that will live forever.

[in 2017] I also have the worst temper known to mankind, my system is all wrong, and sometimes I create too much tension. I lose it, and I am emotional, that's why I've got to spend more time with a therapist and go away. My temper makes people feel intimidated, but I don't even know when I'm doing it. In the past I used to compliment people, and some took it as me being sexual, I won't do that again. I admit to a whole way of behavior that is not good. I can't talk specifics, but I put myself in positions that were stupid. I want to respect women and do things better.

[in 2017 about his wife Georgina Chapman after the scandal broke] She stands 100% behind me. Georgina and I have talked about this at length. We went out with [lawyer] Lisa Bloom last night when we knew the article was coming out. Georgina will be with Lisa and others kicking my ass to be a better human being and to apologize to people for my bad behavior, to say I'm sorry, and to absolutely mean it. [Bloom resigned one day later; his wife Georgina left him less than a week later]

[October 2017] I have had tough conversations with my family, really tough ones but my family is standing with me. I have a journey and I have to prove to every person that's out there that I'm worthy of them and I have to prove to my family the same thing.

[in 2005 on re-editing his foreign features for the American market] I'm not cutting for fun. I'm cutting for the shit to work. All my life I served one master: the film. I love movies.

[October 2017] I am going to fix myself, I am going to fix how I deal with women and how I deal with my temper and power.

You'll get 15 people to say I'm a genius and 15 people to say I'm an asshole.

[in 2001] I think it's an amazing experience watching a movie with an audience... the laughter, inappropriate beats, the groaning, everything you can sense and feel. Irving Thalberg used to take movies out to Santa Barbara and test movies and have people fill out cards. Four hundred strangers in the dark are a lot more honest than your friends who are always telling you how great it is.

[in 2007] Martin Scorsese says never to use irony in interviews . . .

[in 2004, on Hollywood, quoted in Peter Biskind's book "Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film"] It's good that I'm the fucking sheriff of this fucking lawless piece of shit fucking town.

[10/2017, to TMZ on TV (2007) before flying on a private jet to an Arizona treatment facility] I gotta get help, guys.

[10/5/2017, his official statement after the rape accusations were published] I appreciate the way I've behaved with colleagues in the past has caused a lot of pain, and I sincerely apologize for it. My journey now will be to learn about myself and conquer my demons... I so respect all women and regret what happened.

[on sending out limited-releases via videotape to AMPAS members, a strategy adapted after distributor Island Pictures did it successfully] It used to be We didn't watch the movie and you'd have to see the movie in a theater... We changed that with My Left Foot (1989). [won Best Actor for Daniel Day-Lewis and a Best Picture nomination]

[2009] Hollywood has the best moral compass, because it has compassion.

[in a 2013 Sundance panel] You taste bottom in this business. When you fail, you pick yourself up and get yourself back, whether with one movie or two. It's not over, you just keep going.

[9/28/09 article in "The Independent"] Roman Polanski is a man who cares deeply about his art and its place in this world. What happened to him on his incredible path is filled with tragedy, and most men would have collapsed. Instead, he became a great artist and continues to make great films. I was with him the day he won the Legion of Honour in France, which was a spectacular day. I remember the incredible love and affection that people have for him. Now Thierry Frémaux, the director of the Cannes Film Festival, and I are calling on every US filmmaker to lobby against any move to bring Polanski back to the US, where he could face life in jail. Whatever you think about the so-called crime, Polanski has served his time. A deal was made with the judge, and the deal is not being honored. The theory going around is that the reason Switzerland cooperated and acted on a long-standing extradition order with the United States this time was because of their own troubles in the financial crisis. I hope the US government acts swiftly because filmmakers are looking for justice to be properly served. I will be organizing the effort myself by e-mailing everybody I know to sign the petition. And I know that Thierry Frémaux has got hold of Nicolas Sarkozy. We will have to speak to our leaders as well--particularly in California. I'm not too shy to go and talk to the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and to ask him once and for all to look at this. The problem is to do with the legal situation in the state. They are doing this because they want a circus, to make their toughness overt--and that is where I draw the line. This is the government of the United States not giving its word and recanting on a deal, and it is the government acting irresponsibly and criminally.

I've decided that I'm going to give the NRA my full attention. I hope Wayne LaPierre will enjoy his retirement party. I'm going to it at the same place I had my bar mitzvah.