Stanley Kubrick

Perhaps it's a good thing that human beings are not immortal. If they were, they'd get tired of living and fall into a state of profound boredom. It's the knowledge of death that makes life precious.

The greatest truth a man can learn is that there is no greatest truth.

You can't make a film without being a bit of a dictator. You have to be able to say, 'This is what I want,' and everyone else has to follow.

Man is a ape with a conscience.

The very meaning of life is that it is a struggle. We are put on earth to struggle, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

The most terrifying thing is to accept that there is no meaning to life, and then to go on and create your own meaning.

If you really want to understand a film, you have to watch it at least three times. The first time, you watch the story. The second time, you watch the characters. The third time, you watch the subtext and the hidden meanings.

The test of a man's character is what he does when no one is watching.

The future is always a little more complicated than you think.

I don't think there's any such thing as a truly objective film. Every film is a subjective interpretation of reality.

What is it that makes a film good? It's the ability to surprise you, to make you think, to make you feel something you haven't felt before.

The most powerful thing in the world is an idea whose time has come.

I've never been interested in making films that are easy to understand. I want to make films that challenge people, that make them think.

The whole idea of being a great artist is to be able to express something that no one else has expressed before.

The more you know, the more you realize you don't know.

The difference between a good film and a bad film is that a good film is never finished, and a bad film is never started.

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.

I'm not interested in making films that are politically correct. I'm interested in making films that are true to human nature, however ugly that may be.

The purpose of art is to make you think, to make you feel, to make you question the world around you.

I don't believe in God, but I believe in something bigger than ourselves. Call it the universe, call it nature, call it whatever you want, but there's something out there that's beyond our comprehension.