Robert Zemeckis

“I'm in a constant conflict about having to make a movie for the big and the small screen at the same time, stylistically. So I just basically make it for the large screen.”

“When they invented the Steadicam, every movie had to have a fight in a stairwell. Whenever there's a new thing, it's abused until artists realize what a Steadicam as a tool can be. And now I defy people to be able to see Steadicam shots, because we know how to do them and make them invisible.”

“No one can actually define love, but you attempt to, and the closest you can get is longing. And that itself has a melancholy to it. You can say dread, or doom - it's that feeling we all feel when we fall in love with someone: we have this horrible, fearful feeling that maybe we will never have that person in our life.”

“We have this sort of tacit censorship, which is the ratings system, and it's directly tied to box office, so it is censorship. Like, if you make an R-rated movie, you know that only a certain amount of people are going to go see it under any circumstance.”

“I think that technological tools that filmmakers use to tell stories, in a perfect world, need to become invisible. When it's brand new and it's never been seen before and you're birthing this stuff, it's very much on people's minds.”

“Favorite movie lists are impossible for me to do.”

“'I Wanna Hold Your Hand' and 'Used Cars' were absolute failures at the box office. Complete disasters. I learned some sad news: it's not an automatic thing that, if you make a good movie, everyone wants to see it.”

“When I was a kid, I loved action, war, horror, monster movies... Anything with special effects. I was fascinated with how'd they do that.”

“You just have to do your art. Nothing can stop you.”

“It's the most unrealistic thing you can do to shoot a close-up, and it's the most unrealistic place you can be as a performer. And yet actors grouse about having to do visual effect shots, but they love doing close-ups.”

“We don't function well as human beings when we're in isolation.”

“I think the only thing filmmakers can do is try to make good movies and make them as long as they allow us to keep making them. But at the end of the day, it is a business, and if audiences don't care, there's nothing we can do. It'll just go away, I guess.”

“The thing that makes love stories work, in my opinion, in movies and novels and country & western songs, is the feeling of longing.”

“Most actors that I work with are wonderful. Jodie Foster or Tom Hanks will make anything work.”

“I have no complaints about 'The Walk.' I made it, and I'm very happy with what happens.”

“Understand life's mysteries - as mysteries to be lived.”

“Working with actors who are directors is magnificent. Because they understand the art form intimately, and they know exactly how everything works.”

“I'm addicted to documentaries. That's all I watch on television.”

“I don't know any filmmaker who can deconstruct their own work.”

“In the next couple of years, part of every film's process is going to be to adjust the images. And it'll be to change the color of an actor's tie or change the little smirky thing he's doing with his mouth. Or you can put in more clouds or move the tree a little bit.”