Quotes

[concerning his style of biographical films] The whole idea had degenerated into a series of third-rate clichés. I wanted to dress people in old clothes and do it in a totally unreal way, and thus make it more real than ever, and in the process send up this new civil service/academic way of doing films.

The Devils (1971) is a harsh film, but it's a harsh subject. I wish the people who were horrified and appalled by it had read the book, because the facts are more horrible than anything in the film.

It is a pity when one, either through force of circumstance or because one is afraid of being ridiculed by others, won't produce and expose to everyone that little spark of something special which is unique to him alone.

A critic's typical praise is "Beautifully understated." That means beautifully false . . . I'd rather go the other way - to gamble rather than play it safe. If I err it's by overstating, but I try to get it right.

I never want to do a violent, disturbing film like The Devils (1971) again. That's why I did The Boy Friend (1971). It's pure escapism and fun.

Life is too short to make destructive films about people one doesn't like. My films are meant to be constructive and illuminating.

I know my films upset people. I want to upset people.

This is not the age of manners. This is the age of kicking people in the crotch and telling them something and getting a reaction. I want to shock people into awareness. I don't believe there is any virtue in understatement.

[on Stanley Kubrick] I find his films quite long and boring, but I quite liked Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964).

[on Glenda Jackson] Glenda Jackson I'd never heard of. When she walked into the room I found myself watching her varicose veins more than her face, and only later in the movie of "Marat/Sade" [Marat/Sade (1967)] did I realize what a magnificent screen personality she was. I couldn't quite understand it. Sometimes she looked plain ugly, and sometimes just plain and then sometimes the most beautiful creature one had ever seen.

[on working with William Hurt on Altered States (1980)] I hired William Hurt for "Altered States" and found I was his analyst for six months. It wasn't the part he talked about, never that, but how it was such a terrible thing being a billionaire after being born in abject poverty. I was quite deferential to him, but my wife listened to the crap he was talking and said, "Okay, preppy, let's cut the shit." He was stunned and amazed but he was quite human after that.

[on working with screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky on Altered States (1980)] I don't think Paddy had ever been involved with a director who wasn't malleable. He would make suggestions and I would listen courteously, and then disagree.

Sir Richard 'I'm-going-to-attack-the-Establishment-fifty-years-after-it's-dead' Attenborough is guilty of caricature, a sense of righteous self-satisfaction, and repetition which all undermine the impact of the film.

[advert on his own website, through which he met his fourth wife Elize Tribble Russell] "Unbankable film director Ken Russell seeks soulmate. Must be mad about music, movies and Moet & Chandon champagne."

I believe in what I'm doing whole-heartedly, passionately, and what's more, I simply go about my business. I suppose such a thing can be annoying to some people.

[on his break, at the BBC magazine show Monitor (1958)] At intervals during these rewarding but exhausting [production office] sessions we'd fall into The Red Lion pub opposite the studio and have noisy, boozy discussions about everything under the sun with any of the other Monitor (1958) team who happened to be around. That was the most rewarding drinking I ever did. In a sense we were still at school, quaffing bitter with the headmaster, imagining we were on almost equal terms. It was thrilling, believe it or not, and bloody instructive at the same time. In fact Monitor (1958) was and still remains the one and only English experimental film school ever, and Huw Wheldon was its guiding genius.