A biography for Sydney Pollackhasn’t been written yet.
“Every story needs an element of suspense - or it's lousy.”
“We progress by leaps and bounds technologically, medically - we can live longer, we can... but you know, in the year 1230, they knew as much as we know now about the human heart.”
“It's hard for me to fall in love with a piece of material enough to want to direct it.”
“Every single art form is involved in film, in a way.”
“And I taught acting for years, and without knowing it that was the real thing that started bending me toward directing.”
“Well, the wonderful thing about making movies, oddly enough, is that they're sort of highly motivated graduate studies in one or another field.”
“I sort of straddle the line... between personal movies and mainstream Hollywood.”
“Every time I am directing, I question why in God's name I'm doing it again. It's like hitting yourself in the forehead with a hammer.”
“Even with 'Three Days of the Condor,' I wanted to do a thriller. But I was still concentrating on the Faye Dunaway-Robert Redford relationship in that film.”
“There aren't rules in a romance, so they can be played any number of ways.”
“If you list the qualities that we consider feminine, they are patience, understanding, empathy, supportiveness, a desire to nurture. Our culture tells us those are feminine traits, but they're really just human.”
“There isn't a studio in the world that wouldn't burn half its soundstages to get a Tom Cruise movie.”
“I mean, certainly writing, painting, photography, dance, architecture, there is an aspect of almost every art form that is useful and that merges into film in some way.”
“I didn't grow up thinking of movies as film, or art, but as movies, something to do on a Saturday afternoon.”
“You are not an active creator of the film.”
“In terms of level of difficulty, it would go comedy, thriller, and then romantic drama.”
“The essence to me of all good drama is argument.”
“I'd get bored if I... if I had to do a movie, and there was no love story in it, I would just be bored. I mean, I would do it, but it would be kind of boring.”
“South Bend is a nice town, but you know that phrase - 'I was homesick even when I was home.'”
“I don't get nervous talking about my films, but if I'm the subject, it's hard.”