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" A modern hero is very ambiguous. I went through some very rough times in Czechoslovakia - the occupation by the Germans at the end of the war. We had people going against their tanks with brooms. Are they nuts, or are they heroes? "

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" I remember in 1968 when we were in Cannes, in the festival, and we were supposed to be there 10 days, and the second day the festival collapsed because the French, you know, film-makers raised the red flag in the festival and ended the festival. "

Milos Forman

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" If it weren't for 'Cuckoo's Nest,' it would be very difficult for me. It gave me a cushion to live at my artistic pace and not fear I wouldn't have money to live on. "

" You either have commercial pressure or ideological pressure. I prefer commercial pressure; otherwise, you can be at the mercy of one or two idiots. "

" When I came for the first time to the United States, visiting, I was absolutely fascinated by New York. "

" Mediocrity never goes away - but neither, I hope, do those who are willing to challenge it. "

" When you make a film, you realize that the audience will be powerless to stop it or flip back to refresh their memories or skip the boring parts. They are at the mercy of your storytelling. "

" And everything is controlled and everybody is a member of some committee, because then their watchdogs placed in the committees can control everything, what this person says or how this person think(s), you know. "

" I think everybody dreamt somehow to make a film in Hollywood, you know. "

" I get out of the taxi and it's probably the only city which in reality looks better than on the postcards, New York. "

" Individuals fighting or rebelling against the status quo, the establishment, is good for drama. "

" I don't think I was ever as fascinated or have had so much respect for anybody like James Cagney. "

" I worked with Jack Nitzsche for 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,' and we'd booked a symphony orchestra. He dismissed them and came with a little man who poured water into glasses of different sizes to make a glass harmonica. And most of the music for the film was that - with some Indian flutes and some drums. "

" I am absolutely against any violence. "

" Ever since I was a child, I was fascinated by show business, the theater. "

" Communists love to make films about composers because composers compose music and don't talk subversive things. "

" You think you can do anything, and then you slowly learn how wrong you are. "

" Well, I wouldn't say that this experience had any influence on my decision to do this film about Andy, because Andy was apolitical. Andy was never political. "

" I tell you, in my opinion, the cornerstone of democracy is free press - that's the cornerstone. "

" Humor was not important only for me, humor was important for this nation for centuries, to survive, you know. "

" And also they were absolutely brilliant in one way, you know: they knew how effective is not to punish somebody who is guilty; what Communist Party members could afford to do was mind-boggling: they could do practically anything they wanted - steal, you know, lie, whatever. "

" So I left with Jean Claude and went to Paris, so when the Russians came to Prague, I was in Paris. "

" Well, listen, you know, the Czech saying is, you know, when you are drowning you are grabbing even a little twig. That's what all Czechs were doing, grabbing for... with the hope for this little twig. "

" We have funny ideas about how people in mental institutions act. We think of drooling and people going booga-booga and climbing the wall. These are exceptional cases. "

" Because if you lived, as I did, several years under Nazi totalitarianism, and then 20 years in communist totalitarianism, you would certainly realize how precious freedom is, and how easy it is to lose your freedom. "

" Because I just loved to spend two years of my life in the company of Andy Kaufman and other characters. "

" Memories are doing funny things to us. "

" The worst evil is - and that's the product of censorship - is the self-censorship, because that twists spines, that destroys my character because I have to think something else and say something else, I have to always control myself. "

" First of all, to defend my work, I had to believe that I am doing a totally silly, stupid, innocent comedy. "

" When I entered the film school at the Prague Academy in the '50s, it was the hardest time in the Communist countries. The ideological control of the society was almost absolute. "

" So, thanks God, our films, our first films were suddenly being appreciated by the Western media; especially France was very good, and Switzerland was very good. "