Steven Spielberg

Steven Allan Spielberg 

18 December 1946

An American film director, screenwriter, producer, and business magnate. After moving to California, Spielberg applied to attend the film school at University of Southern California School of Theater, Film and Television two separate times, but was unsuccessful. He subsequently became a student at California State University, Long Beach. While attending Long Beach State in the 1960s, Spielberg became a brother of Theta Chi Fraternity. His actual career began when he returned to Universal Studios as an unpaid, seven-day-a-week intern and guest of the editing department. After Spielberg became famous, USC awarded him an honorary degree in 1994, and in 1996 he became a trustee of the university. In 2002, thirty-five years after starting college, Spielberg finished his degree via independent projects at CSULB, and was awarded a B.A. in Film Production and Electronic Arts with an option in Film/Video Production. 

Spielberg is consistently considered as one of the leading pioneers of the New Hollywood era, as well as being viewed as one of the most popular and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as archetypes of modern Hollywood blockbuster filmmaking. In later years, his films began addressing humanistic issues such as the Holocaust, the transatlantic slave trade, war, and terrorism. 

Three of Spielberg's films—Jaws (1975), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and Jurassic Park (1993)—achieved box office records, each becoming the highest-grossing film made at the time.

As director, producer, executive producer, writer

• Amblin' (1968)
• Duel (1971)
• The Sugarland Express (1974)
• Jaws (1975)
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
• I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978)
• 1941 (1979)
• The Blues Brothers (1980)
• Used Cars (1980)
• Continental Divide (1981)
• Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
• E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
• Poltergeist (1982)
• Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)
• Gremlins (1984)
• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
• Room 666 (1984)
• Fandango (1985)
• Back to the Future (1985)
• The Color Purple (1985)
• The Goonies (1985)
• Young Sherlock Holmes (1985)
• An American Tail (1986)
• The Money Pit (1986)
• Batteries Not Included (1987)
• Empire of the Sun (1987)
• Harry and the Hendersons (1987)
• Innerspace (1987)
• Three O'Clock High (1987)
• The Land Before Time (1988)
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
• Always (1989)
• Back to the Future Part II (1989)
• Dad (1989)
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
• Tummy Trouble (1989)
• Arachnophobia (1990)
• Dreams (1990)
• Back to the Future Part III (1990)
• Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)
• Joe Versus the Volcano (1990)
• Roller Coaster Rabbit (1990)
• A Wish for Wings That Work (1991)
• An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991)
• Cape Fear (1991)
• Hook (1991)
• Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation (1991)
• A Brief History of Time (1991)
• Trail Mix-Up (1993)
• Jurassic Park (1993)
• We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993)
• Schindler's List (1993)
• The Flintstones (1994)
• Casper (1995)
• Balto (1995)
• Twister (1996)
• The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
• Men in Black (1997)
• Amistad (1997)
• Saving Private Ryan (1998)
• The Last Days (1998)
• The Mask of Zorro (1998)
• Deep Impact (1998)
• Wakko's Wish (1999)
• Shooting War (2000)
• A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
• Jurassic Park III (2001)
• Vanilla Sky (2001)
• Minority Report (2002)
• Men in Black II (2002)
• Catch Me If You Can (2002)
• The Terminal (2004)
• War of the Worlds (2005)
• The Legend of Zorro (2005)
• Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)
• Munich (2005)
• Flags of Our Fathers (2006)
• Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
• Monster House (2006)
• Transformers (2007)
• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
• Eagle Eye (2008)
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)
• The Lovely Bones (2009)
• Hereafter (2010)
• True Grit (2010)
• Super 8 (2011)
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)
• Cowboys & Aliens (2011)
• Real Steel (2011)
• The Adventures of Tintin (2011)
• War Horse (2011)
• Men in Black 3 (2012)
• Lincoln (2012)
• Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014)
• The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014)
• Poltergeist (2015)
• Jurassic World (2015)
• Bridge of Spies (2015)
• The BFG (2016)
• Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)
• The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara (2017)
• Ready Player One (2018)
• Indiana Jones 5 (2019)

Quotations

* * *

Technology can be our best friend, and technology can also be the biggest party pooper of our lives. It interrupts our own story, interrupts our ability to have a thought or a daydream, to imagine something wonderful, because we're too busy bridging the walk from the cafeteria back to the office on the cell phone.

* * *

The delicate balance of mentoring someone is not creating them in your own image, but giving them the opportunity to create themselves.

* * *

When I was a kid, there was no collaboration; it's you with a camera bossing your friends around. But as an adult, filmmaking is all about appreciating the talents of the people you surround yourself with and knowing you could never have made any of these films by yourself.

* * *

The most amazing thing for me is that every single person who sees a movie, not necessarily one of my movies, brings a whole set of unique experiences. Now, through careful manipulation and good storytelling, you can get everybody to clap at the same time, to hopefully laugh at the same time, and to be afraid at the same time.

* * *

There is a fine line between censorship and good taste and moral responsibility.

* * *

Remember, science fiction's always been the kind of first level alert to think about things to come. It's easier for an audience to take warnings from sci-fi without feeling that we're preaching to them. Every science fiction movie I have ever seen, any one that's worth its weight in celluloid, warns us about things that ultimately come true.

* * * 

You shouldn't dream your film, you should make it!

* * *

You have many years ahead of you to create the dreams that we can't even imagine dreaming. You have done more for the collective unconscious of this planet than you will ever know.

* * *

I wanted to do another movie that could make us laugh and cry and feel good about the world. I wanted to do something else that could make us smile. This is a time when we need to smile more and Hollywood movies are supposed to do that for people in difficult times.

* * *

Well, luckily with animation, fantasy is your friend.

* * *

People have forgotten how to tell a story. Stories don't have a middle or an end any more. They usually have a beginning that never stops beginning.

* * *

All of us every single year, we're a different person. I don't think we're the same person all our lives.

* * *

I dream for a living.

* * *

I love editing. It's one of my favorite parts about filmmaking.

* * *

Every time I go to a movie, it's magic, no matter what the movie's about.

* * *

Making a movie where the central character is a horse was a challenge. Because I'm scared of riding. I was thrown as a kid. One of my daughters is a competitive jumper, we live with horses, we have stables on our property. But I don't ride. I observe, and I worry.

* * *

Cell phones tend to bring us more inside of our lives whereas movies offer a chance to escape, so there are two competing forces.

* * *

Even though I get older, what I do never gets old, and that's what I think keeps me hungry.

* * *

I'm not really interested in making money.

Steven Spielberg

* * *

Making a movie and not directing the little moments is like drinking a soda and leaving the little slurp puddle for someone else.

* * *

I quit college so fast I didn't even clean out my locker.

* * *

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Jihadism have nothing to do with each other.

* * *

As a Jew I am aware of how important the existence of Israel is for the survival of us all. And because I am proud of being Jewish, I am worried by the growing anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism in the world.

* * *

When I grow up, I still want to be a director.

* * *

I think documentaries are the greatest way to educate an entire generation that doesn't often look back to learn anything about the history that provided a safe haven for so many of us today.

* * *

I think one of the worst things that happened to me was, you know, my voluntary fallout with my father. And then the greatest thing that happened to me was when I saw the light, and realized I needed to love him in a way that he could love me back.

* * *

It all starts with the script: it's not worth taking myself away from my family if I don't have something I'm really passionate about.

* * *

I never felt comfortable with myself, because I was never part of the majority. I always felt awkward and shy and on the outside of the momentum of my friends' lives.

* * *

Casting sometimes is fate and destiny more than skill and talent, from a director's point of view.

* * *

From the day I started to think politically and to develop my own moral values, from my earliest youth, I have been an ardent defender of Israel.

* * *

I don't think any movie or any book or any work of art can solve the stalemate in the Middle East today. But it's certainly worth a try.

* * *

My father had many, many veterans over to the house, and the older I got the more I appreciated their sacrifice.

* * *

I like the smell of film. I just like knowing there's film going through the camera.

* * *

For one thing, I don't think that anybody in any war thinks of themselves as a hero.

* * *

I missed my dad a lot growing up, even though we were together as a family. My dad was really a workaholic. And he was always working.

* * *

And I may often question choices I make as a producer. But I've never questioned the choices I make as a director.

* * *

I just had a crazy, wild imagination all my life, and science fiction is the greatest outlet for me.

* * *

I don't drink coffee. I've never had a cup of coffee in my entire life. That's something you probably don't know about me. I've hated the taste since I was a kid.

* * *

There are so many rumours about so many of us in the public eye. Sometimes it's too hard to deny what is not true.

* * *

My head's not in the clouds, but I think I've gotten too much credit for being an astute businessman.

* * *

I made 'Saving Private Ryan' for my father. He's the one who filled my head with war stories when I was growing up.

* * *

My dad took me to my first movie. It was 'The Greatest Show on Earth' in 1952, a movie of such scale it was actually a traumatic experience.

* * *

I've discovered I've got this preoccupation with ordinary people pursued by large forces.

* * *

There is something about killing people at close range that is excruciating. It's bound to try a man's soul.

* * *

When I was very young, I remember my mother telling me about a friend of hers in Germany, a pianist who played a symphony that wasn't permitted, and the Germans came up on stage and broke every finger on her hands. I grew up with stories of Nazis breaking the fingers of Jews.

* * *

My dad took me out to see a meteor shower when I was a little kid, and it was scary for me because he woke me up in the middle of the night. My heart was beating; I didn't know what he wanted to do. He wouldn't tell me, and he put me in the car and we went off, and I saw all these people lying on blankets, looking up at the sky.

* * *

You can't start a movie by having the attitude that the script is finished, because if you think the script is finished, your movie is finished before the first day of shooting.

* * *

My problem is that my imagination won't turn off. I wake up so excited I can't eat breakfast. I've never run out of energy. It's not like OPEC oil; I don't worry about a premium going on my energy. It's just always been there. I got it from my mom.

* * *

You can't intellectually purge yourself of who you are. Whatever that is, it's going to come out in the wash, the film wash. What you are is going to be relevant, if not to yourself, to the movies you make.

* * *

When I was younger, all I cared about was what people thought of me and my films. Now I care less about catering, hand-serving, hand-feeding the audience. I've gotten to the point now in my life where I'm serving myself.

* * *

I've always wanted to tell a story about Lincoln. I saw a paternal father figure; I saw someone who was completely, stubbornly committed to his ideals, to his vision.

* * *

I've always been interested in how we survive and how resourceful we are as Americans.

* * *

When I felt like an outsider, movies made me feel inside my own skill set.

* * *

Money to me is not a factor in my life.

* * *

We all feel that if we have a crazy idea that might get laughed at, there's nothing wrong with seeing if there's a crazy writer out there who agrees with us and can take it to a crazy network and somehow bring something that's a little bit daft and edgy to life.

* * *

I've always been interested in UFOs.

* * *

You know, I don't really do that much looking inside me when I'm working on a project. Whatever I am becomes what that film is. But I change; you change.

* * *

History opens up new worlds to film-makers all the time.

* * *

I love history, so I do a lot of movies about history.

* * *

I feel I'm all over my movies. I know my movies are all over me.

* * *

I want to be the Cecil B. DeMille of science fiction.

* * *

Once a month the sky falls on my head, I come to and I see another movie I want to make.

* * *

When I don't have a movie, I don't take a job just for the sake of working. I just sit it out until I find something I'm passionate about.

* * *

Whether in success or in failure, I'm proud of every single movie I've ever directed.

* * *

I was a scared kid... I think I was born a nervous wreck, and I think movies were one way to find a way transferring my own private horrors to everyone else's lives. It was less of an escape and more of an exorcism.

* * *

It is not my job to compare my movies. I don't like to compare my films with other movies because I don't really have that perspective. It is an intellectual exercise, but it doesn't intuitively come to me.

* * *

Because of how much movies cost, it's dangerous to be experimental on one film after the other. But we can experiment with television. We can do things that are fringe and bring ideas to the table that are offbeat and original.

* * *

Even if I'd had a really happy relationship with my father and there was no emotional hiatus for a decade and a half, I probably would still have made some of the same choices for movies that I've made.

* * *

I think we need to take responsibility for the things we put on this planet, and also take responsibility for the things we take off the planet. We need to have limiters on how far we allow ourselves to go - ethical, moral limiters.

* * *

I turned down 'Harry Potter' and 'Spider-Man,' two movies that I knew would be phenomenally successful, because I had already made movies like that before and they offered no challenge to me. I don't need my ego to be reminded.

* * *

I always think if it's a good story, the audience can't wait to run out of the theater and go tweet somebody with the gist of a story, in a nutshell, almost, because it was that interesting.

* * *

I even get inspired by movies that aren't very good, because there's always something good in movies that are collectively thought of as a failure. There's good in everything, I find.

* * *

I interviewed survivors, I went to Poland, saw the cities and spent time with the people and spoke to the Jews who had come back to Poland after the war and talked about why they had come back.

* * *

I think that a movie can only be an adjunct or only a supplement to books, to different points of view, to scholars, historians and your own teachers.

* * *

I would love to do a musical. I would love that. I would have to find the right book, the right story, but some day I'm going to make one. I would really like to go off and direct a musical. That's what I would really like to do when I grow up.

* * *

There's no better way to test a person than to put them in the middle of a war. That's clearly going to show what kind of a character you're telling a story about.

* * *

Fathering is a major job, but I need both things in my life: my job to be a director, and my kids to direct me.

* * *

It's still a mystery to me, but even though my mother was like an older sister to me, I kind of put her up on a pedestal.

* * *

Lincoln believed in the American people.

* * *

A lot of the films I've made probably could have worked just as well 50 years ago, and that's just because I have a lot of old-fashion values.

* * *

Bloated budgets are ruining Hollywood - these pictures are squeezing all the other types of movies out of Hollywood. It's disastrous.

* * *

I thought film was more important than life itself for many years. But I was naive to the world until my first child was born in 1985.

* * *

I don't really have a schedule of when I want to show my children my movies.

* * *

I simply adore 'The Simpsons.' I go to bed in a 'Simpsons' T-shirt.

* * *

I love my kids as individuals, not as a herd, and I do have a herd of children: I have seven kids.

* * *

I was making a lot of 8mm home movies, since I was twelve, making little dramas and comedies with the neighborhood kids.

* * *

I've always sort of time-locked and mind-blocked myself in my 30s, and that's always the age I feel.

* * *

If I weren't a director, I would want to be a film composer.

* * *

The machinery of the democratic process is really no different today from what it was 150 years ago.

* * *

If Bush, as I believe, has reliable information on the fact that Saddam Hussein is making weapons of mass destruction, I cannot not support the policies of his government.

* * *

I think producers are more interested in backing concepts than directors and writers. I don't think that's the right way of making a decision about whether you're going to back a film or not.

* * *

I'm always in favor of Israel responding strongly when it's threatened. At the same time, a response to a response doesn't really solve anything. It just creates a perpetual-motion machine.

* * *

My first reaction every time I delve into an episode of history that I don't know very much about is... my first reaction is anger that my teachers never taught me about it.

* * *

The Japanese had a very strong belief in Bushido, death before dishonour. They were fighting for their country; they were the aggressors in World War II.

* * *

I go out and look for a good story to tell and if I like it enough and I decide to direct it, I become dangerously involved in becoming a part of that story.

* * *

I'm not in a race with anybody to make the biggest hit movie anymore. I am just trying to tell stories that I can stay interested in for the two years it takes me to supervise the writing and to direct them.

* * *

I'm very used to working with first time actors - you can just look back at 'E.T.' with Drew Barrymore, and Christian Bale from 'Empire of the Sun,' who'd never made a movie before.

* * *