Peter Jackson

I find that in the process of making a film you\'re constantly discovering things that you never even imagined would work at the beginning. Actors come into the film and do things you never even imagined. Production designers come in, the director of photography lights it in a way that you never imagined. So, it\'s always evolving, always exciting.

I don't really like the Hollywood blockbuster bandwagon that exists right now. The industry and the advent of all the technology, has kind of lost its way. It's become very franchise driven and superhero driven.

Aragorn: Gentlemen! We do not stop \'til nightfall. Pippin: But what about breakfast? Aragorn: You\'ve already had it. Pippin: We\'ve had one, yes. But what about second breakfast? [Aragorn stares at him, then walks off.] Merry: Don\'t think he knows about second breakfast, Pip. Pippin: What about elevensies? Luncheon? Afternoon tea? Dinner? Supper? He knows about them, doesn\'t he? Merry: I wouldn\'t count on it Pip.

You never make movies for Oscars.

Pre-preproduction is the tenuous time before a project is greenlit; before the studio commits to spending real money. This is the most vulnerable period for any film because it\'s the time when your project is most likely to be put into turnaround. That\'s film-speak for killed off.

I\'ve always been happy to take a gamble on myself.

\'Bad Taste\' was - it was, in many respects, my sort of, my, I guess, my single-minded desire to want to break into the film industry when New Zealand didn\'t really have a film industry to break into.

I\'m thinking about doing a First World War film.

I don\'t think that because you die and move on to somewhere else that you lose your sense of humor.

We\'re human beings, and we want stories. We\'re always going to be entertained and have our emotions touched by humanity and by things that we recognize in our own lives. So whilst every now and again we\'ll be happy to watch a bubblegum film, it\'s never gonna be the only things that get made.

To some degree, I was very dubious of the \'Pirates of the Caribbean\' idea - taking a theme park ride and turning into a film - even though they seemed to end up being quite fun films.

There are a couple of locations in \'The Hobbit\' that are shared with \'Lord of the Rings.\'

I want to put everything I think I\'ve learned about filmmaking and storytelling and put it to the test in other areas.

The idea of an animated film is you always kind of get a little bit daunted by it as a filmmaker because it feels like a lot of your communication is going to be with computer artists, and you\'re going to have to kind of channel the movie through extra pairs of hands.

\'Heavenly Creatures\' was really the idea of Fran Walsh. It was a very famous New Zealand murder case, but not one that people knew much about.

I love writing, and I love postproduction. That\'s great, because you start to reassemble the film, and you sit there, and you start to really put the film together, finally. The shooting of it is the most stressful part of the process.

To be an original is probably the hardest quality to find if you\'re a young filmmaker.

I don\'t like directing that much to want a career as a director for hire. I like to have as much creative control as possible.

If I\'m lucky enough to be involved in the Academy Awards in the future, I\'ll just let people make up their decision without being involved in any politics. Because it shouldn\'t involve that.

The entertainment options for young people are a lot broader now, and the quality of films is slumping a little bit.

I just got tired of being overweight and unfit, so I changed my diet from hamburgers to yogurt and muesli, and it seems to work.

Where film is infinitely superior to any other medium is emotion and story and character.

If justice is supposed to be fair, than any justice system you would hope is based on fairness.

There are perennial stories like \'Alice in Wonderland\' and \'Sherlock Holmes\' and those sorts of things, which have been around since almost as long as film, and \'Frankenstein\' is another one. They\'re perennial favorites, which get remade every 20 years, and that\'s OK.

While you\'re finding evidence of innocence, you also find evidence that points to other people.

There is a lot of \'Halo\' movie material no one has ever seen in New Zealand.

When I worked as a newspaper photo engraver in the only job I ever had, many years ago, I\'d get the train home to Pukerua Bay where I was staying with my parents. An hour ride, 16 stops, and almost always, I\'d have automatic wake-up, seconds before we pulled into my station.

If you take \'The Hobbit\' and \'The Lord of the Rings\' as books, one is written for children, and one is an adult\'s book.

I\'m always embarrassed by those rugby player autobiographies which get written by journalists.

The theatrical versions are the definitive versions. I regard the extended cuts as being a novelty for the fans that really want to see the extra material.