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Home
Authors
Terry Gilliam
American
Director
About the author
You get trapped by stories. Though I've got this reputation for being out of control, it's not true, it just happens to be a more interesting story than the truth.
Terry Gilliam,
American
Director
#Being
#Truth
#Control
#Reputation
John Cleese was with a group called Cambridge Circus, who had come to New York, and we became friends. Years later that produced a certain team effort.
Terry Gilliam,
American
Director
#Years
#Friends
#Effort
Literally overnight, I became an animator... and one that was well-known.
Terry Gilliam,
American
Director
People used to think we just faked all that stuff... it was all written, rehearsed. The fact that it looks as cobbled together as it does is just that we weren't very good.
Terry Gilliam,
American
Director
#People
#Fact
There are moments when television systems are young and haven't formed properly, and there's room for lots of original stuff. Then things become more and more top-heavy with executives who are trying to guarantee the success of things.
Terry Gilliam,
American
Director
#Success
#Trying
#Television
#Moments
There was a perverse side of me, with things like Van Helsing coming out. I didn't want to go down that route.
Terry Gilliam,
American
Director
#Want
They make Spy Kids, they make Scream, they make A Scary Movie. This doesn't do that, so it could be a very bad marriage. I'm trying to keep this potential nightmare quiet because we're just finishing editing.
Terry Gilliam,
American
Director
#Kids
#Trying
#Marriage
#Quiet
#Potential
We took up the offer with the BBC, and that was Monty Python's Flying Circus. I didn't have to submit my ideas to the group. I used to turn up on the days we recorded with a can of film under my arm, and in it went.
Terry Gilliam,
American
Director
#Film
#Ideas
#Flying
I got my head bashed in at a demonstration against the Vietnam War. Police were losing control because they were up against a world they really didn't understand.
Terry Gilliam,
American
Director
#World
#War
#Control
#Losing
#Vietnam
#Police
It's been interesting how kids have had hardly any problems watching it, but adults have more trouble. This happened way back even with Jabberwocky and Time Bandits.
Terry Gilliam,
American
Director
#Time
#Kids
#Problems
#Trouble
We did Holy Grail, and I got my name up there as one of the directors. After that, I started moving more and more down the line I wanted to, which was making movies.
Terry Gilliam,
American
Director
#Movies
#Name
It was lights, camera, inaction.
Terry Gilliam,
American
Director
#Inaction
In advertising, I was frustrated by having to deal with the client. It was the only time I really worked in a proper office, and I didn't like it-simple as that.
Terry Gilliam,
American
Director
#Time
#Office
#Advertising
I was getting frustrated with America. It's interesting how as simple a thing as, like, letting your hair grow longer changed in the world in those days.
Terry Gilliam,
American
Director
#World
#America
#Hair
I was doing political cartoons and getting angry to the point where I felt I was going to have to start making and throwing bombs. I thought I was probably a better cartoonist than a bomb maker.
Terry Gilliam,
American
Director
#Thought
#Cartoons
#Bombs
I was born in 1940 in Minnesota and grew up in the country... dirt roads, swamps, lakes, woods.
Terry Gilliam,
American
Director
#Country
I keep referring to them in the plural but all I'm dealing with is Bob. I don't know where Harvey fits in the equation. He was very present at the beginning, winding his brother up. I don't know where he is now.
Terry Gilliam,
American
Director
#Now
#Present
#Beginning
#Brother
Hyperbole is something I'd better avoid.
Terry Gilliam,
American
Director
At the first screening, there were a lot of areas that we went around and around about. Then we had our second screening. It played better. It's almost a reasonable length film now!
Terry Gilliam,
American
Director
#Film
#First
Actually, I began to think that maybe there is a god, after all. Or maybe it's a different one. The old one got fired.
Terry Gilliam,
American
Director
#God
#Old
It's 85 million dollars and they got to be really careful because they are going to need me.
Terry Gilliam,
American
Director