Taika Waititi

“Nothing could be more restrictive than working with people in advertising.”

“I did roles that I hated, and there were roles that were detrimental to my acting ability. There were roles that I was always doing that were always the comic relief... it was destroying my soul.”

“I daydream all the time.”

“'Eagle vs Shark' is a little film I could take risks with and make mistakes on.”

“Independent films are really the best ones out there. They're the most original stories, and they're very good.”

“There are lots of parts of filmmaking that I don't like. At the end of the day, especially on features, the film turns into a commodity. You have to play this entirely new game I'm very uncomfortable with.”

“When I became a film-maker, all my favourite films, they weren't comedies.”

“Coming from a very small country, it's always nice to see our own doing well.”

“Basically, the big studios and companies distributing your movie just take a big cut of profit for making posters.”

“You have to write what you know.”

“'Boy' was about my dad.”

“Shooting a movie should be fun! It's not a real job. It can be hard, but at the end of the day, we're dressing up and playing pretend.”

“The family unit is very interesting because these are people that you're supposed to be the closest to in your life, and yet that's where you find the greatest distances between people as well - especially between parents and kids.”

“You make up a character, there's always gonna be parts of you that, like it or not, shine through.”

“If someone asked, 'What are your films like?,' the best I can come up with is that they're, like, a fine balance between comedy and drama. And they deal mainly with the clumsiness of humanity.”

“When I play characters, I like playing people who just comment on stuff, stand around and talk.”

“The stuff I'm passionate about is what I write; it isn't multi-million-dollar franchise movies.”

“It was never really my plan to become a filmmaker.”

“Maori get pigeonholed into the idea they're spiritual and telling stories like 'Whale Rider' and 'Once Were Warriors,' quite serious stuff, but we're pretty funny people, and we never really have had an opportunity to show that side of ourselves, the clumsy, nerdy side of ourselves, which is something I am.”

“I love heroes that really go through ordeals, and they come out the other end completely changed.”