A biography for Steven Soderberghhasn’t been written yet.
“I know why we can't have a frank discussion with our policymakers - if you're in the government or in law enforcement you cannot acknowledge that drugs are anything but inherently evil and morally wrong.”
“Traffic is about drugs. As detailed a portrait as I can muster about what is happening in the drug world, from top to bottom, from policy to how things move on the street.”
“Maybe I'll paint, do photography, just something else. I can see that.”
“I don't consider myself to be particularly gifted in the way that other filmmakers are gifted.”
“When people say that moviegoing is dead, I go, 'OK, so the makers of 'Get Out' should've sold that movie to a platform? Then they don't have this insane, crazy success theatrically all over the world.'”
“I guess why the Ocean's films are hard for me is because on the one hand you have to make sure the performances are there, but on the other hand it's a film that demands, to my mind, a very layered and complex visual scheme. That takes a lot of time to figure out.”
“It's pretty clear to me that working as a director for hire agrees with me. I like it. The films that have come out of that, I personally like better than the ones that didn't.”
“I watch a lot of true crime on TV.”
“'Logan Lucky' is an experiment. The problem that I think needs to be addressed is, what has happened to movies for grown-ups made by people who are still interested in the idea of cinema?”
“Making a film that's supposed to be fun to watch is really hard - that's the weird irony of it.”
“I like to make all kinds of movies. I'd do 'Ocean's Thirteen' with the right script.”
“As vocal as some people have been about how emotionally attached they've been to celluloid, I've been equally emotional in my stance that nothing is more valuable than this. Than being able to see the result of your work quickly.”
“A movie that costs only $1.6 million doesn't have to be a cultural event to turn a profit.”
“I guess I didn't feel confident enough to be searching in a big public way. I was very content at the time to toil in obscurity on things that I thought might point me in certain directions or teach me certain things - not knowing what that would be.”
“The reverberation of the freedom of making 'Schizopolis' absolutely resulted in 'Out of Sight' and everything that followed.”
“The key to making good movies is to pay attention to the transition between scenes.”
“Warner Bros. has talked about going out with low-cost DVDs simultaneously in China because piracy is so huge there. It will be a while before bigger movies go out in all formats; in five years, everything will.”
“A success, to me, is the ability to keep working. That's success. It has nothing to do with money; it's the ability to keep getting things made, period.”
“I look at other filmmakers and see skills in them that I wish I had but I know that I don't. I feel like I have to work really hard to keep myself afloat, doing what I do. But I find it pleasurable.”
“If you can find interesting ways to be clear, you're really onto something.”