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" 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. "
Milos Forman
Time
School
Control
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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. "
Milos Forman
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Fear
Live
" Now, after the communist take-over in 1948, the amount of feature films produced dwindled to three a year, while the school was, you know, every year another three, four, five students. "
Milos Forman
Now
Students
School
" Humor was not important only for me, humor was important for this nation for centuries, to survive, you know. "
Milos Forman
Important
Humor
Know
" 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. "
Milos Forman
Evil
Control
Think
" I get out of the taxi and it's probably the only city which in reality looks better than on the postcards, New York. "
Milos Forman
Better
Reality
New York
" 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? "
Milos Forman
Hero
Heroes
Nuts
" You think you can do anything, and then you slowly learn how wrong you are. "
Milos Forman
You
Wrong
Learn
" Definitely, it would be foolish to try and make my Czech films here in America, as foolish as it is when some Czech filmmakers try to make movies of America in Czechoslovakia. "
Milos Forman
Here
Foolish
Movies
" I can say, with a little arrogance, that I could be an actor, a cameraman, a writer, but composers are the most mysterious people. "
Milos Forman
Say
I Can
Arrogance
" The way one perceives a book and a film are totally different. You read a book in the privacy of your room. You are the boss; you set the pace and rhythm of your reading. In the movie house, you can't do that. "
Milos Forman
Boss
House
Privacy
" First of all, whoever didn't want to be a member of this association or the other association, was branded, you know, like a dangerous individualist, you know, infected by the Western decadence, you know. So everybody joined. "
Milos Forman
Know
Like
Want
" Individuals fighting or rebelling against the status quo, the establishment, is good for drama. "
Milos Forman
Quo
Good
Fighting
" 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. "
Milos Forman
You
Know
Lie
" I don't mind getting involved in a risky project as long as I don't have to stay married to it if the script turns out lousy. "
Milos Forman
Out
Involved
Long
" Mediocrity never goes away - but neither, I hope, do those who are willing to challenge it. "
Milos Forman
Away
Never
Mediocrity
" Ever since I was a child, I was fascinated by show business, the theater. "
Milos Forman
Business
Show
Show Business
" Communists love to make films about composers because composers compose music and don't talk subversive things. "
Milos Forman
Things
Because
Love
" I was born in a small town. My parents, my father was a teacher. My mother was a housewife. "
Milos Forman
Mother
Father
Parents
" First of all, to defend my work, I had to believe that I am doing a totally silly, stupid, innocent comedy. "
Milos Forman
Believe
Work
Stupid
" Technically, you can learn everything on the set as an assistant director, and rather quickly. "
Milos Forman
Director
Everything
Learn
" 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. "
Milos Forman
Think
Ideas
People
" 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. "
Milos Forman
You
Mercy
Boring
" When I came for the first time to the United States, visiting, I was absolutely fascinated by New York. "
Milos Forman
New York
First Time
New
" You know, 20 years... the films of television when it started, the literature, radio in communist countries, they're clean as a whistle; there was no violence, no sex, no drugs, nothing. "
Milos Forman
Know
Sex
Violence
" People must not think that all bad in man which is unleashed, the moment you impose censorship disappears from man. "
Milos Forman
Think
Bad
Man
" Holocaust films will be made and should be made as long as we can't understand what makes people so cruel to each other. "
Milos Forman
Holocaust
Long
People
" So I left with Jean Claude and went to Paris, so when the Russians came to Prague, I was in Paris. "
Milos Forman
Came
Russians
Paris
" You know what happened, you know, in 1938: France, England, you know, just sold out Czechoslovakia to Hitler. "
Milos Forman
France
You
Out
" You either have commercial pressure or ideological pressure. I prefer commercial pressure; otherwise, you can be at the mercy of one or two idiots. "
Milos Forman
Mercy
Pressure
You
" Because I just loved to spend two years of my life in the company of Andy Kaufman and other characters. "
Milos Forman
Loved
Company
Two