A film is - or should be - more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what's behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later.

— Stanley Kubrick

A filmmaker has almost the same freedom as a novelist has when he buys himself some paper.

— Stanley Kubrick

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

— Stanley Kubrick

Among a great many other things that chess teaches you is to control the initial excitement you feel when you see something that looks good. It trains you to think before grabbing and to think just as objectively when you're in trouble.

— Stanley Kubrick

Anyone who has ever been privileged to direct a film also knows that, although it can be like trying to write 'War and Peace' in a bumper car in an amusement park, when you finally get it right, there are not many joys in life that can equal the feeling.

— Stanley Kubrick

Any time you take a chance you better be sure the rewards are worth the risk because they can put you away just as fast for a ten dollar heist as they can for a million dollar job.

— Stanley Kubrick

However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.

— Stanley Kubrick

I am afraid of airplanes. I've been able to avoid flying for some time, but I suppose, if I had to, I would. Perhaps it's a case of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing. At one time, I had a pilot's license and 160 hours of solo time on single-engine light aircraft. Unfortunately, all that seemed to do was make me mistrust large airplanes.

— Stanley Kubrick

I do not always know what I want, but I do know what I don't want.

— Stanley Kubrick

If chess has any relationship to film-making, it would be in the way it helps you develop patience and discipline in choosing between alternatives at a time when an impulsive decision seems very attractive.

— Stanley Kubrick