Quotes by George A. Romero

“As great as Ed is, the wisdom out here is that he cant carry a movie. Theyll pay him $3 million to be the second banana in Julia Roberts things. But they wont put up $3 million for an Ed Harris movie.”

“A lot of people say my work borrows from Hitchcock, but I think if Ive stolen... of COURSE Ive stolen, this is a parasitic medium... but if Im parasitic of anyone its Welles, and Michael Pal and Kazan... those are my guys. The James Whale stuff... I LOVE the old B&W movies, like classic paintings.”

“Its a lot harder to do anything thats that edgy cause the execs dont wanna hear about it... but were trying to raise some European money and see if we can get a low budget together.”

“Pictures that test great go out and go in the toilet. And pictures that test poorly, all of a sudden theyll come out of the pack and people like them, but they dont get a chance because a studio wont really get behind it if it tests poorly. Its a mess. I mean, its really a mess.”

“I didnt play practical jokes at home. I had a strict upbringing, which is part of my rebellion. I was raised Catholic and went to parochial school, which is why priests and nuns appear in my movies a lot, and I dont have very much nice to say about them.”

“I like having to use ingenuity... When Im pitching ideas, I say hey guys, the real scary stuff doesnt need the big bucks... things that go bump in the night... you can scare someone without spending a lot of money.”

“I never liked the Friday The 13th movies, or any of that. Its just not my bag. Its a genre that I guess current audiences havent seen in a while, or havent seen at all. I have a 14-year-old daughter, and the first one of those she ever watched, she only watched because of peer pressure.”

“My opinion of a good zombie walk is to loll your head as if its a little too heavy and the muscles have begun to atrophy.”

“I think people that love the genre giggle at it. I dont get grossed out, I giggle.”

“I also have always liked the monster within idea. I like the zombies being us. Zombies are the blue-collar monsters.”

My stories are about humans and how they react, or fail to react, or react stupidly. Im pointing the finger at us, not at the zombies. I try to respect and sympathize with the zombies as much as possible.

I grew up on EC comic books and Tales From the Crypt, which were all loaded with humor, bad jokes, and puns. I can have that kind of fun and make these comic book movies but, at the same time, talk about things I want to talk about - whether its consumerism or the Bush administration or war.

When we made Night of the Living Dead, we got riddled. There was this famous article Roger Ebert wrote just blasting the film because he had gone to see it at some screening where there were all these kids in the audience. I dont know why that happened. We didnt make the movie for kids.

For me, tribalism and religion are basically the big reasons were in trouble. Patriotism, tribalism, and religion.

I really liked the helicopter pilot in Dawn of the Dead, when he gets bitten and comes out of the elevator. That guy was amazing. He did this incredible walk that we didnt even know about until we started shooting.

I sit around listening to classical music. I dont play video games. I love to go to dinner, go on picnics, travel.

The Thing from Another World was the first movie that really scared me. But the one that made me want to make movies was The Tales of Hoffman. Thats my favorite film of all time. Its a fantasy film. Its an opera. I never get tired of it.

As great as Ed is, the wisdom out here is that he cant carry a movie. Theyll pay him $3 million to be the second banana in Julia Roberts things. But they wont put up $3 million for an Ed Harris movie.