George A. Romero

“With 'Dawn,' I wanted the slick look; I wanted to bring out the nature of the shopping center, the retail displays, the mannequins. There are times when maybe you reflect that the mannequins are more attractive but less real - less sympathetic, even - than the zombies. Put those kinds of images side by side, and you raise all sorts of questions.”

“I've only actually done one studio film. I want to be left alone.”

“My film collection is all oldies.”

“I used to be able to pitch them on the basis of the zombie action, and I could hide the message inside that. Now, you can't. The moment you mention the word 'zombie,' it's got to be, 'Hey, Brad Pitt paid $400 million to do that.'”

“I want 'Dawn' to play like a cowboys and Indians movie.”

“I always have CNN on. That's where I get my ideas.”

“I wanted 'Night of the Living Dead' to look naturalistic, but we weren't able to do it because we were shooting with a blimped 35mm camera, which is automatically static.”

“There are very few horror films that I think are worth their salt.”

“I liked the '28 Days Later' films, but they're not zombies; they're not dead. They're not using it in the same way.”

“Pittsburgh, for a while, became a production centre. There was one $400 million year. Hollywood was bringing productions in there. Films like 'The Silence of the Lambs' and 'Innocent Blood.' So my guys, the guys I worked with, were able to have careers and live at home. But then it dried up, and a lot of my friends left.”

“I will never make a film where zombies are threatening to take over the planet.”

“Neighbors are frightening enough when they're alive.”

“There is something about the sameness people like. And what I've tried to do with all the zombie films is purposely make them different. That may be part of why it takes so long for people to see what it's intended to be.”

“I won't say I'm uncompromising, but I won't compromise just for the hell of it.”

“I keep a little notebook of things that I can do to the zombies that might be silly and fun.”

“I go to conventions and universities and talk to young filmmakers and everybody's making a zombie movie! It's because it's easy to get the neighbors to come out, put some ketchup on them.”

“I grew up on EC comic books and 'Tales From the Crypt,' which were all loaded with humor, bad jokes, and puns. I can have that kind of fun and make these comic book movies but, at the same time, talk about things I want to talk about - whether it's consumerism or the Bush administration or war.”

“Horror films are the anchovies of the cinema. Either you like them, or you don't.”

“'Day of the Dead' remains my favourite zombie film of mine.”

“I've made six zombie films; I've tried consciously to make each one different from the next.”