Milos Forman

“I don't think I was ever as fascinated or have had so much respect for anybody like James Cagney.”

“So, thanks God, our films, our first films were suddenly being appreciated by the Western media; especially France was very good, and Switzerland was very good.”

“Ever since I was a child, I was fascinated by show business, the theater.”

“First of all, to defend my work, I had to believe that I am doing a totally silly, stupid, innocent comedy.”

“I can say, with a little arrogance, that I could be an actor, a cameraman, a writer, but composers are the most mysterious people.”

“Mediocrity never goes away - but neither, I hope, do those who are willing to challenge it.”

“Technically, you can learn everything on the set as an assistant director, and rather quickly.”

“Milan Kundera was my literature professor. He's a Francophile, so he made us read French novels like 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses,' which I made a version of many years later as 'Valmont.'”

“And also they were absolutely brilliant in one way, you know: they knew how effective is not to punish somebody who is guilty; what Communist Party members could afford to do was mind-boggling: they could do practically anything they wanted - steal, you know, lie, whatever.”

“In Czechoslovakia, we consider Kafka a very funny man. A humorist.”

“Humor was not important only for me, humor was important for this nation for centuries, to survive, you know.”

“Communists love to make films about composers because composers compose music and don't talk subversive things.”

“Well, I wouldn't say that this experience had any influence on my decision to do this film about Andy, because Andy was apolitical. Andy was never political.”

“You either have commercial pressure or ideological pressure. I prefer commercial pressure; otherwise, you can be at the mercy of one or two idiots.”

“I worked with Jack Nitzsche for 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,' and we'd booked a symphony orchestra. He dismissed them and came with a little man who poured water into glasses of different sizes to make a glass harmonica. And most of the music for the film was that - with some Indian flutes and some drums.”

“The way one perceives a book and a film are totally different. You read a book in the privacy of your room. You are the boss; you set the pace and rhythm of your reading. In the movie house, you can't do that.”

“Now, after the communist take-over in 1948, the amount of feature films produced dwindled to three a year, while the school was, you know, every year another three, four, five students.”

“I tell you, in my opinion, the cornerstone of democracy is free press - that's the cornerstone.”

“Memories are doing funny things to us.”

“You know, 20 years... the films of television when it started, the literature, radio in communist countries, they're clean as a whistle; there was no violence, no sex, no drugs, nothing.”