Karel Reisz

“The basis of my work is the documentary approach. That's the bedrock of my filmmaking.”

“I'm interested in the gap between what people say and what they do.”

“For me, the cinema is a social art. It's about communicating ideas and emotions to an audience.”

“All my films have been about people who are in some way outsiders.”

“Actors are not puppets. They are your collaborators. You have to create an atmosphere of trust.”

“The problem with Hollywood is that it's a factory. It produces products, not films.”

“The real subject of 'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning' is a kind of vitality, a refusal to be beaten down.”

“Every film is a new problem. You can't apply a formula.”

“The French Lieutenant's Woman was about the impossibility of telling a Victorian story in a modern age. So we told two stories.”

“The audience is the final collaborator.”

“I'm a great believer in the importance of preparation. You can't have too much.”

“The story must dictate the style, not the other way around.”