Michael Winner Quotes

But when you look at the rubbish who are getting these awards and the absolute non-service they have given to the nation other than financing or working for political parties, you say, "What company am I in?"
At least if you go straight to the House of Lords you can wear fancy dress and have a giggle.

So this is it: goodbye. I’ve been writing this column for nearly 20 years and I don’t want a carriage clock or a gold watch. I am trying to get rid of stuff, not collect it.

I really don't care if I get anything or not. [...] I'm very glad that they recognise my considerable skills as a toilet cleaner.

[To extras dressed as London policemen] You're just standing there! DOING NOTHING! Why should I pay you for doing nothing? I want you to run. You understand run! [...] R-U-N? RUN?

If you’re dead, you're dead, so who cares.

[On the Swiss Dignitas assisted dying clinic] It's not a walk-in death. You don't just go in and say, "Here I am, do your worst". You have to go through a whole series of papers and re-examinations just to die. You have to fill in forms and things and go have to fly there, go back twice.

An OBE is what you get if you clean the toilets well at King's Cross station.

Money has no value unless it is spent. (undated)

[Marlon] Brando was my best friend, [Robert] Mitchum, Burt Lancaster, even though he tried to kill me three times.

I think with less accomplished actors you often have to play tricks [...] You may actually want to upset them to make them look upset on the screen so they carry that forward.

I think the lesbians have come over with considerable dignity and you have come over as an arsehole.

If I could go back, I would spend much more, earlier. No question. This sounds absolutely crass, but I would have taken private planes earlier, would have had a chauffeur and better cars earlier, I'd have bought better paintings earlier.

I don't want to do something for the sake of it. I am prepared to wait. If I wait until I am buried, too bad.

A team effort is a lot of people, doing what I say.

So when I'm directing now, you see, I'm thinking of myself, I'm projecting myself in five weeks' time, sitting in a little room with two assistants, saying, "I now need a piece of film when Mr. Caine does this, or Mr. Moore does that." And if I haven't got it, I say, "Damn it, I should have gotten that." So all the time I'm imagining myself in that little X-time hence which is why I can shoot a very complicated pattern without any pre-planning.
Because I'm two people. I'm Arnold Crust, the editor, and I'm Michael Winner, the director.