Abel Ferrara Quotes
Born: July 19, 1951
Abel Ferrara is a visionary filmmaker whose raw, unflinching narratives have redefined the boundaries of cinematic innovation. Emerging from New York’s underground scene, he forged a philosophy that technology and art must serve the chaotic truth of human experience, not sanitize it. His quotes resonate because they strip away pretense, offering a gritty, poetic blueprint for creators navigating the digital age. Ferrara’s legacy is a defiant call to embrace imperfection, risk, and the transformative power of the street—a reminder that true innovation is born from the friction between the soul and the machine.
Abel Ferrara Quotes (35)
"A script is not a piece of literature it's a process."
— Abel Ferrara"My existence is about making movies, so I've just got to rock and roll with the punches. You want to make movies on telephones, I'm there."
— Abel Ferrara"In the film business, it's basically honor among thieves."
— Abel Ferrara"I grew up in the '60s, which was a creative time, so it wasn't that big of a stretch to go from a baseball bat to a guitar to a film camera."
— Abel Ferrara"But I'm never gonna get to a point in my life where what it costs to shoot a movie is going to determine what it is. The limits of my imagination is the only thing that's gonna stop me."
— Abel Ferrara"Listen, anybody who has a film festival has the right to show what they want."
— Abel Ferrara"I was raised a Catholic and when you're raised a Catholic they don't teach you to think for yourself. You're taught not to think too deeply about things."
— Abel Ferrara"That's the thing about making a movie: You never finish editing. They just take it away from you."
— Abel Ferrara"Where I come from you're not raised to think on your own. It's not that you're pushed to read the Bible. The Bible is read to you."
— Abel Ferrara"I'm not a big fan of talking about dying. And then I make a movie where I kill everybody."
— Abel Ferrara"Life is what happens when you're doing other things, right?"
— Abel Ferrara"The secret is not to make a film that causes something like Virginia Tech to happen. The secret is to make a film that stops it happening."
— Abel Ferrara"With 'New Rose Hotel,' I knew that I was getting paid a $100,000 fee to write, produce, and direct, and that's all I was going to get."
— Abel Ferrara"My life is proof that I don't need you to do what I do. If there's no one to see it, I'll watch it."
— Abel Ferrara"Most filmmaking is about shaking hands and just starting."
— Abel Ferrara"I'm about my characters."
— Abel Ferrara"As an old-time New Yorker, it's not that I miss the '70s and '80s or whatever. I miss the fact that there was a certain kind of energy that exists when people can live for nothing."
— Abel Ferrara"I'm a lapsed Buddhist like I'm a lapsed Catholic. I take it to a point."
— Abel Ferrara"The last day of your life is still going to be a day."
— Abel Ferrara"I don't care if I get $50 million to do a film."
— Abel Ferrara"I don't have a problem with Werner Herzog."
— Abel Ferrara"Making money is not gonna change anything about what I am, except I won't answer the door."
— Abel Ferrara"I don't know what DVD commentaries are about. I'd like to strangle the person who came up with that concept."
— Abel Ferrara"I was born in the Bronx, and then my father moved us to the country at an early age."
— Abel Ferrara"I don't care if I get $50m to do a film."
— Abel Ferrara"Mulberry Street was the beating heart of the Italian-American experience, but you don't find those gangsters now. I live with a bunch of yuppies and models."
— Abel Ferrara"I live with a bunch of yuppies and models."
— Abel Ferrara"No one can stop me from talking about my movie."
— Abel Ferrara"I come from a world where you get the film done, that's a success."
— Abel Ferrara"Certain actors wanna get paid, they think working in a low-budget movie is being ripped off. But for others it's like, 'Yes, let's do it.'"
— Abel Ferrara