ROMAN POLANSKI

I want people to go to the movies. I am the man of the spectacle. I'm playing.

I still had some honor... I still have some now.

Cinema should make you forget you are sitting in a theater.

I don't really know what is shocking. When you tell the story of a man who is beheaded, you have to show how they cut off his head. If you don't, it's like telling a dirty joke and leaving out the punch line.

I never made a film which fully satisfied me.

I did not have a reputation to defend.

You have to show violence the way it is. If you don't show it realistically, then that's immoral and harmful. If you don't upset people, then that's obscenity.

My films are the expression of momentary desires. I follow my instincts, but in a disciplined way.

Normal love isn't interesting. I assure you that it's incredibly boring.

I can only say that whatever my life and work have been, I'm not envious of anyone-and this is my biggest satisfaction.

In Paris, one is always reminded of being a foreigner. If you park your car wrong, it is not the fact that it's on the sidewalk that matters, but the fact that you speak with an accent.

If you have a great passion it seems that the logical thing is to see the fruit of it, and the fruit are children.

Whenever I get happy, I always have a terrible feeling.

I would love to make a film about aging that would take place before the war. It would follow the stages in the life of a woman who would not have at her disposal the resources of today like cosmetic surgery, creams and pills.

I admire actors for their infinite patience. That's why they need all those trailers and all their crowd of people who pamper them. But it is a drag to get up sometimes at 4:30 in the morning and get into makeup, and wait forever until they call you onto the set.

It's easy to direct while acting - there's one less person to argue with.

Why did Erich von Stronheim leave Germany? Why did Hitchcock leave England? If you were a director you'd like to work in Hollywood too. Now go ahead and ask me if I'm still Polish. You people keep asking me this question. You want Polish artists to make it in the world, but when they do, you accuse them of treason.

I like skiing, among other things, because I have moments when I am alone in the mountains. That's fantastic, when there's nobody around you. You see miles around you, and the sun is almost down .

To the audience it doesn't really matter how much the director struggled with an actor. It's the result that counts.

I don't know anyone who is not using drugs for the reason that they're illegal.

I don't rehash the past. It's my baggage. That's all. I accept things as they are.

Happy endings make me puke.

The whole showmanship is NOT to answer every question.

Every failure made me more confident. Because I wanted even more to achieve as revenge, to show that I could.

I don't think that there would be more users if drugs were legalized.