A biography for Michael Ciminohasn’t been written yet.
“What we forget is that the Academy is a star-maker, or it reinforces the stardom of people.”
“War is war. Vietnam is no different from the Crusades.”
“I've had enough rejection for 33 years. I don't need more.”
“There's no service ribbon for people who fought in Korea. We lost over 30,000 men between 1951 and 1953 - as many as we lost in 15 years in Vietnam.”
“There have been so many false things written about me by people who don't know me.”
“Working-class, blue-collar guys who volunteered for Vietnam were ascribed certain political beliefs. It's time that this was redressed. It had nothing to do with politics. Once these men got to Vietnam, it was a matter of survival.”
“When I was fifteen, I spent three weeks driving all over Brooklyn with a guy who was following his girlfriend.”
“Who cares about seeing 10,000 helicopter assaults? That's spectacle.”
“I wouldn't have had the life I've had without movies.”
“I have no personal life.”
“We all want to experience that in our lives - a moment when we're two feet off the ground - and making movies gives you that opportunity. It comes and it goes so fast that it's unreal, but it does happen.”
“I love to scout locations.”
“There is always that need to feel that you're doing your possible best.”
“It was just - I mean, 6,000 people giving you a standing ovation is quite an experience.”
“I cut 'Deer Hunter' myself.”
“They've said everything about me that they could: racist, Marxist, rightist, homophobic, sex change - I don't know what else they could come up with.”
“It's silly - you go to a plastic chapel in Vegas, you get married in 10 minutes, and it takes you 10 years to get divorced.”
“It's always a daily struggle to write.”
“Because people don't see me around a lot, I'm the source of all sorts of rumour.”
“'Leaving Las Vegas' is a relationship; 'Dead Man Walking' is a relationship, and they're very contained movies. They're compressed and not in wide open spaces all over the place.”