Quotes by Oliver Stone

“[T]heres something about movies that always amazes me, their transcendence of time. You can in one second, in one frame, see something that will spark you as divine or genius.”

“When you look at a movie, you look at a directors thought process.”

“They make prostitutes of us all.”

“Lunch is for wimps.”

“Money itself isnt lost or made, its simply transferred from one perception to another. This painting here. I bought it 10 years ago for 60 thousand dollars. I could sell it today for 600. The illusion has become real and the more real it becomes, the more desperately they want it.”

“Forget the grand plan. Forget the master scheme. Forget control. That is the bleak but true basis of independent cinema. Inch by motherfuking inch we must, because we have no other choice.”

“Ive been to war, and its not easy to kill. Its bloody and messy and totally horrifying, and the consequences are serious.”

“Bin Laden was completely protected by the oil companies in this country who told President Bush not to go after him because it would piss off the Saudis.”

“One of the joys of going to the movies was that it was trashy, and we should never lose that.”

“The worst nightmare I ever had about Vietnam was that I had to go back. I woke up in a sweat, in total terror.”

Hell is the impossibility of reason.

Ive been to war, and its not easy to kill. Its bloody and messy and totally horrifying, and the consequences are serious.

I will come out with my interpretation. If Im wrong, fine. It will become part of the debris of history, part of the give and take.

I am not trying to be a historian and a dramatist; Im a dramatist, a dramatic historian, or one who does a dramatic interpretation of history.

I study history in order to give an interpretation.

Never underestimate the power of jealousy and the power of envy to destroy. Never underestimate that.

I think experience will teach you a combination of liberalism and conservatism. We have to be progressive and at the same time we have to retain values. We have to hold onto the past as we explore the future.

Fear may very well be a caveman fear of the predator, of the giant lizard chasing them - maybe thats what Steven Spielberg connects with so well in Lost World.

I do believe that movies are subject to a million interpretations.

Im terrible at horror movies, by the way. I get scared so easily.