Quotes by Sydney Pollack

About Sydney Pollack:

Sydney Irwin Pollack was an American film director, producer and actor. Pollack directed more than 21 films and 10 television shows, acted in over 30 films or shows, and produced over 44 films. His 1985 film Out of Africa won him Academy Awards for directing and producing; he was also nominated for Best Director Oscars for They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969) and Tootsie (1982), in the latter of which he also appeared. Some of his other best known works include Jeremiah Johnson (1972), The Way We Were (1973), Three Days of the Condor (1975) and Absence of Malice (1981). His subsequent films included Havana (1990), The Firm (1993), Sabrina (1995), The Interpreter (2005), and as producer for and actor in Michael Clayton (2007).
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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.

Sydney Pollack

I didn't grow up thinking of movies as film, or art, but as movies, something to do on a Saturday afternoon.

Sydney Pollack

You know, essentially when you do a play you're reinterpreting a work of art that already exists. That's not what happens with a movie.

Sydney Pollack

Every single art form is involved in film, in a way.

Sydney Pollack

With a movie you're creating from the beginning this particular work, let's not call it work of art, because very few movies are works of art, let's just call them bits of popular culture, whatever they are, sometimes very rarely by accident a movie ...

Sydney Pollack

I mean, certainly it's the single biggest event, I think, in terms of popular entertainment, or art even, if you say that, of the 20th Century. It's been film. It's the 20th Century's real art form.

Sydney Pollack

I didn't believe that I'd ever be lucky enough to be able to make a living as an actor.

Sydney Pollack

And I taught acting for years, and without knowing it that was the real thing that started bending me toward directing.

Sydney Pollack

No, I never went to college. Always regretted it, always envied people who did.

Sydney Pollack

You don't normally do another presentation of All About Eve. You do one All About Eve, and that's it.

Sydney Pollack

You are not an active creator of the film.

Sydney Pollack

Burt Lancaster was largely responsible for me becoming a director.

Sydney Pollack

I mean, I don't know anything else that I would try to do, but it's a very frustrating thing to do, because you are trying to take what's a fantasy in your head and make it live through the minds of 200 people.

Sydney Pollack

But, I've made films in Japan, in Yugoslavia, all over Europe, all over the United States, Mexico, but not Hollywood.

Sydney Pollack

We talked about Tootsie, the idea in Tootsie is that a man becomes a better man for having been a woman.

Sydney Pollack

For example, a man who might not have enormous charisma, who could be president 40 years ago, and who was a deserving president, I don't know that George Washington would be a president today, I don't know that Abe Lincoln would, I don't know that Ro...

Sydney Pollack

I don't know about liberal bias, but people of a liberal mentality are probably attracted in greater numbers to the arts than people of a conservative mentality.

Sydney Pollack

I've produced my own films for twenty years now - it means I have to talk to less people.

Sydney Pollack

Film is a collective experience, as you know.

Sydney Pollack

Reading a novel of a private experience, very, very different, the nature of it is very different.

Sydney Pollack

Author Bio

  • NameSydney Pollack
  • DescriptionAmerican film director, producer and actor
  • AliasesSydney Irwin Pollack
  • BornJuly 1, 1934
  • DiedMay 26, 2008
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionFilm Producer; Actor; Television Actor; Film Actor; Television Director; Film Director; Aviator
  • AwardsAcademy Award For Best Director; Primetime Emmy Award