Guy Ritchie Quotes

1. Previously, on Lock, Stock, I went to bed at two in the morning and woke up at five in the morning, and on this one I was known to nod off on the set occasionally.

2. I got too fed up with films that didn't make you think. I liked the idea of one that you'd have to be dancing around with. I like my mind to be engaged when I watch a film.

3. The best thing to do is find one person in your life and try to love them unconditionally. If you've accomplished that, you've accomplished a lot.

4. After Lock, Stock, all these really nasty small town characters came knocking at my door trying to tell me stories, and somehow I ended up with this guy whose brother was feeding people to pigs, and that's what he did to get rid of people.

5. All the other guys I think had a scream on Lock, Stock. They just had a laugh and a crack, and thought it would never come out; they were just having a good time. On this one, I felt that.

6. We're quite volatile as individuals, but that doesn't work exponentially when we are together. Relationships are about eating humble pie.

7. I am not involved in any "issues" because it's too sensitive for me - or my wife - to get involved. Every time we express an opinion it becomes a whole thing in itself. And the whole purpose of living in the countryside was to get away from hundreds of people. My wife fell off a horse, and suddenly there are hundreds of people around.

8. I can understand that the whole world is interested in my wife Madonna. That's even why I married her.

9. I like death. I'm a big fan of it.

10. I got into film-making because I was interested in making entertaining movies, which I felt there was a lack of.

11. I like to think that we've got a plan, so let's stick to it. That said, once we've stuck to it, we're allowed as much improvisation as anyone cares to indulge themselves in.

12. I suppose directing on set is the most fun because it's a good crack and you feel you're on the battlefield whereas writing is a fairly solitary undertaking.

13. I'd like to work with the missus, but there's nothing in the pipeline at the moment.

14. I love fatherhood. I could bang on about kids forever.

15. I think there's a natural system in your own head about how much violence the scene warrants. It's not an intellectual process, it's an instinctive process.

16. I'm not politically motivated. I used to be - passionately. I used to be very Left wing. Then I went very Right wing, and now I rest somewhere in the middle.

17. I'm not under too much of an illusion of how smart or un-smart I am because filmmaking ultimately is about teamwork.

18. If somebody has a better idea than me, I'll take it if it surpasses what we have on the page because at the end of the day, it's me that takes the credit anyway!

19. In fact, 95% of the people in my films have been nothing less than a pleasure to work with.

20. It's about not letting the internal enemy, the real enemy, have his way because the more he does the stronger he becomes. The film's about the devastating results that can manifest from the internal enemy being unbridled and allowed to unleash chaos.

21. It's not easy to strap yourself down to a desk and bash on a keyboard when you know you can direct lots of films, because directing films is fun and interactive and gregarious. Writing isn't.

22. Jake Green isn't just Jake Green. Jake represents all of us. The colour green is the central column of the spectrum and the name Jake has all sorts of numerical values. All things come back to him within the film's world of cons and games.

23. On Lock, Stock, we didn't know where the money for shooting the next day was coming from.

24. My principal job is to make interesting and entertaining films, and I'm not proud of which format or which particular technique I use. I just wanted the film to look good.

25. Other than the fact that I like a country house, I can't think of anything I'd want to spend my money on.

26. The English countryside is the most staggeringly beautiful place. I can't spend as much time there as I like, but I like everything about it. I like fishing, I like clay- pigeon shooting.

27. The idea is that there is no such thing as an external enemy.

28. They're all based on factual characters. Well, a good amount of them. That's why I was attracted to this genre anyways, because these characters are so large and cartoonish, they're like caricatures, I just felt that there had to be a film made about them.

29. We always have a take that's "one for fun", so once you've got what you need, you can do what you like. Something does occasionally pop out of that tree. I'm always open to ideas.

30. We are not that flash, me or the missus. In fact, we are quite low-maintenance.

31. We can all be conned but at what point do we realize that we're being conned and to what point do we allow ourselves to be conned?

32. Well, what I try to do is throw as much mud on the wall as I possibly can and just see what sticks, what shines as quirky or more interesting that the others, and I try to cling onto that one, somehow join a link from there to there.

33. What I liked about American movies when I was a kid was that they're sort of larger than life and I think I'm still suffering from that reaction.

34. You get a different kick out of all aspects of filmmaking.

35. Yeah, I'm certainly a lot more confident on this one than I was one the last one, which I think can be a good thing and a bad thing. But, at least I slept while making this film.

36. Brad (Pitt), poor geezer, was blown up, thrown around, burned, slapped, frozen. But never a moan or a whine. Now that's what I call a real star.

37. The critics have been harsh all the way through my career but it doesn't affect me.

38. The idea was that the wife and I would make some sassy little art movie together that would come out and be wonderfully received. I took a punt and got a kicking for it. I've got to say, I think it's a good film and I'm scratching my head about what went wrong.

39. We split all the bills 50-50. So what? That's perfectly normal, isn't it?

40. I anticipated they would be harsh but I don't hold it against them.

41. We would be grateful if the media would kindly allow us some privacy at this special time…We thank you all for your good wishes.

42. She's passionate about riding and knows that he is the man who can help her master the craft. (on Madonna)

43. I refuse to take the kids to Chuck E. Cheese every weekend when I really want to go to TGI Fridays!

44. I am relatively familiar with getting a good old rumping from the critics. In some cases, the critics just didn't like the film - fair cop. Others, I think, didn't understand it.

45. So It's really about characters and sub cultures again. About gypsies and things that I couldn't squeeze in the last one, I stuck in on this one.

46. As I get more and more involved in the child's world with Rocco (his son) I'm getting interested in making a film for children.

47. I like to think it's not violence for the sake of violence and in this particular film, it's actually violence for the annihilation of violence.

48. (on Madonna) Creatively, we like the same sort of things, so it just makes sense to work together.

49. So it's based on the formula that you can only get smarter by playing a smarter opponent. Who is the ultimate opponent? Yourself.

50. Guy Ritchie: "Thank you very much. I won’t say much more because Gerry Butler is the eloquent one among us. But thank you very much for this."

Butler: "This was supposed to be Guy speaking but as usual he dumped it on me. Listen, I want to thank Guy who really wrote all the words and directed all the stuff and did a great job and it’s about time he got SOMETHING right…"

Ritchie: (chases Butler away from the mike) "That’s quite enough out of you Gerry."

Mark Strong: "It’s great that people who know about movies and love movies decided to vote this Best British Film; thank you very much."

51. I enjoyed my first marriage. It's definitely not something I regret. The experience was ultimately very positive. I love the kids that came out of it, and I could see no other route to take. But you move on, don't you? You're right, I stepped into a soap opera, and I lived in it for quite a long period of my life. I'll probably be more eloquent on it 10 years from now.

52. When you end up with a lot of the things you set out to chase and find that you've stumbled into all sorts of hollow victories, then you become deeply philosophical. I'm quite happy that that experience was accelerated for me. I'm glad I made money, in other words. And I'm glad I got married.

53. You've got to work it out for yourself. What works for me might not work for anyone else. Because everyone told me that to be good at school was important, but for me it wasn't. So I am anti-school. And I'm anti people putting so much pressure on kids and robbing their childhood by giving them so much homework. I think if kids want to arse around, then they should.

54. (on claims by Madonna's brother that he's homophobic) You'd be hard pushed to be a homophobe and marry Madonna!

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