Top 120 Martin Scorsese Quotes (2025 Update)
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101. “Very often I’ve known people who wouldn’t say a word to each other, but they’d go to see movies together and experience life that way.”

— Martin Scorsese

102. “An interviewer once asked me to discuss my collaboration with Elmer Bernstein, and precisely why I chose to work with him. My first thought was: How could I not work with Elmer, when I had the chance? Simply put, he’s the best there is-the very best.”

— Martin Scorsese

103. “A lot of what I’m obsessed with is the relationship and the dynamics between people and the family, particularly brothers and their father.”

— Martin Scorsese

104. “I’d like to do a number of films. Westerns. Genre pieces. Maybe another film about Italian Americans where they’re not gangsters, just to prove that not all Italians are gangsters.”

— Martin Scorsese

105. “My films really have to be a part of a whole body of work that says something to me.”

— Martin Scorsese

106. “Always get to the set or the location early, so that you can be all alone and draw your inspiration for the blocking and the setups in private and quiet.”

— Martin Scorsese

107. “I’m very phobic about flying, but I’m also drawn to it.”

— Martin Scorsese

108. “Alcohol decimated the working class and so many people.”

— Martin Scorsese

109. “I’m trying not to let the anger and the violence that erupt take over my life. I guess it comes with the growing process, I don’t know. A little mellowing.”

— Martin Scorsese

110. “Basically, you make another movie, and another, and hopefully you feel good about every picture you make. And you say, ‘My name is on that. I did that. It’s OK.’ But don’t get me wrong, I still get excited by it all. That, I hope, will never disappear.”

— Martin Scorsese

111. “What the Dalai Lama had to resolve was whether to stay in Tibet or leave. He wanted to stay, but staying would have meant the total destruction of Tibet, because he would have died and that would have ripped the heart out of his people.”

— Martin Scorsese

112. “I didn’t realize there are generations who do not know about the origins of film.”

— Martin Scorsese

113. “I certainly wasn’t able to get it when I was a kid growing up on the Lower East Side; it was very hard at that time for me to balance what I really believed was the right way to live with the violence I saw all around me – I saw too much of it among the people I knew.”

— Martin Scorsese

114. “If you’re looking for the origins of film culture in America, look no further than Amos Vogel.”

— Martin Scorsese

115. “I love the look of planes and the idea of how a plane flies. The more I learn about it the better I feel; while I still may not like it, I have a sense of what is really happening.”

— Martin Scorsese

116. “I think there’s only one or two films where I’ve had all the financial support I needed. All the rest, I wish I’d had the money to shoot another ten days.”

— Martin Scorsese

117. “I know there were many good policemen who died doing their duty. Some of the cops were even friends of ours. But a cop can go both ways.”

— Martin Scorsese

118. “I don’t think there’s a subject matter that can’t absorb 3-D; that can’t tolerate the addition of depth as a storytelling technique.”

— Martin Scorsese

119. “The first element that I connected with was the emotion. Sorry, that’s how it goes.”

— Martin Scorsese

120. “I still dislike phones, yeah!”

— Martin Scorsese

121. “On the one hand, you’re the same person, but as you get older, you change somewhat, and you never know how it’s going to affect your work.”

— Martin Scorsese

122. “There was always a part of me that wanted to be an old-time director. But I couldn’t do that. I’m not a pro.”

— Martin Scorsese

123. “I can’t really envision a time when I’m not shooting something.”

— Martin Scorsese

124. “All my life, I never really felt comfortable anywhere in New York, except maybe in an apartment somewhere.”

— Martin Scorsese

125. “I happen to like vampires more than zombies.”

— Martin Scorsese

126. “Zombies, what are you going to do with them? Just keep chopping them up, shooting at them, shooting at them.”

— Martin Scorsese

127. “I go through periods, usually when I’m editing and shooting, of seeing only old films.”

— Martin Scorsese

128. “Actually, I was rock climbing on this film at 7 in the morning. It was quite unique! But in any event, the colour of the leaves disturbed me so we had to work on that. On the other hand, I didn’t want to drench it in a kind of depressing tone.”

— Martin Scorsese

129. “The only thing I really wanted was the freedom to be able to get what I want on film. I’ve dealt with the MPAA since 1973, so I know how to renegotiate and rework.”

— Martin Scorsese

130. “I think what happened there was just the budget would be too big to build these sets because nothing really exists here in New York of that period; you have to build it all.”

— Martin Scorsese

131. “I don’t agree with everything he did in his life, but we’re dealing with this Howard Hughes, at this point. And also ultimately the flaw in Howard Hughes, the curse so to speak.”

— Martin Scorsese

132. “The vampire thing always works for some reason. Always works.”

— Martin Scorsese

133. “The bottom line is, I tend to be going back to older and older music.”

— Martin Scorsese

134. “No matter where the cinema goes, we cannot afford to lose sight of its beginnings.”

— Martin Scorsese