Quotes By Ang Lee

Film study was considered disgraceful by my father.

So many times you see beautiful lovemaking scenes with a lot of exposure or an awkward lovemaking scene, but I think it's very rare that you see it private.

I wanted to shoot straight, mainstream, somehow off-beat. Not only realistic West, which is quite unfamiliar to the world's population - even to a lot of Americans.

I try to please everyone.

The woman's perspective is like the dark side of the moon: it always exists, but it is never exposed, at least not in my culture.

I'm actually living my life with the material I choose to work with.

There's a level of sophistication of filmmaking that's mind-boggling. Anything you need for your movie, there's an establishment that can make it happen really fast.

Economically, it's more expensive to make movies. I hope digital movies change that.

I don't have incredible knowledge about films or of filmmaking history; I'm not that kind of person.

When something possesses me, I go ahead and do it.

I think I prefer 3D to 2D now.

I think the American West really attracts me because it's romantic. The desert, the empty space, the drama.

I'm a big boy now, and I have to deliver.

I think doing period piece is easier, because after a certain distance, everybody is equal, I think. The relative contemporary is harder. I think that's the way it is.

3D is quite a lot more advanced in animated movies; for live-action movies we're just taking baby steps, we're just in the beginning.

Sexuality is a big issue, but there are others - how much you commit to a relationship, to social obligation, to honesty and being honest with yourself.

I don't care about writing really.

The fear factor actually brings the genuineness.

Emotions serve characters' purposes. That is their motivation.

What is really a stretch to me is to make quick decisions.

When I see something I like, that's all that counts. What they use, how they get there, I never bother them.

My cultural roots are something illusive.

When I have a full schedule like that, I don't see myself sitting there for a couple of months, doing the research, going through a painful process, it's just not my thing anymore.

On a Chinese film you just give orders, no one questions you. Here, you have to convince people, you have to tell them why you want to do it a certain way, and they argue with you. Democracy.

I did a women's movie, and I'm not a woman. I did a gay movie, and I'm not gay. I learned as I went along.

Everyone in the gay community doesn't think alike.

I took the name Green Destiny from - well there is such a sword called Green Destiny. It is green because you keep twisting it, it's an ancient skill, you keep twisting it and knocking it and twisting it until it is very elastic and light.

I have a lot of repression. So repression is what I make movies about.

I think each movie-making process is a very exhausting and satisfying and fulfilling experience for me.

I'm a shy human being.