Happy Birthday Roland Emmerich!

There's not really much destruction in New York besides the weather and it's a natural force so it's not like any destruction. But LA gets leveled (laughs). That's my comment to Hollywood.

Ich mache Filme für die Massen.

Nobody makes movies bad on purpose.

Jeder weiß das die Industrienationen die schlimmsten Sünder sind.

... all my movies are created because I'm fascinated by a subject. Sometimes I think there's just a certain obsession about it all - when you want to do something just for the sake of it. A lot of directors are like that. I'm just very fortunate that most of my movies get made.

Ich kam in die Schule im Jahr 1977, als Regisseure wie Fassbinder und Wenders waren alle Helden zu filmen.. Aber es war auch die Zeit, die Star Wars und Unheimliche Begegnung kam heraus, und diese waren die bahnbrechenden Filmen für mich.. Jeder ist immer so vorsichtig sein, über diese Dinge.. Ich meine, ich bin gut befreundet mit Wim Wenders, aber es bedeutet nicht, dass ich seine Filme gerne.. Einige von ihnen, wie ich.. Die meisten von ihnen, finde ich langweilig.. Und ich würde ihm, um sein Gesicht zu sagen.

I came to film school in 1977 when directors like Fassbinder and Wenders were everybody's heroes. But it was also the time that Star Wars and Close Encounters came out, and these were the seminal movies for me. Everybody is always so careful about these things. I mean, I'm good friends with Wim Wenders, but it doesn't mean I have to like his movies. Some of them, I like. Most of them, I find boring. And I would tell him that to his face.

Es macht mir Spaß, etwas zu schaffen, das keiner je gesehen hat.

If you're going to spend seven months of your life - for me seven months, for roland emmerich, 3, 4, 5 years of his life - doing something, I think you have to have something to say.

Wenn Sie nicht von der Kritik sind geliebt, es ist sehr schwer für alle, die nichts Gutes über den Film sagen.. Für mich ist es wichtiger, dass das Publikum genießt es und umarmt sie, sowieso.. Sie erhalten etwas, das gut tut, aber wird kritisiert.. So können Sie sagen: "OK, sie einfach nicht bekommen.. Es gibt 1% oder 2%, die nicht wie sie.. Aber es gibt noch 98%, die getan haben.

I'm making movies for the masses.

Ich habe nie einen großen Anspruch gehabt, ich habe nie eine Mission verspürt, die Menschen zu belehren.

When you're not loved by the critics, it's very hard for anyone to say anything good about your movie. For me, it's more important that the audience enjoys it and embraces it, anyway. You get something that does well, but is criticized. So you say, 'OK, they just didn't get it. There's 1% or 2% who didn't like it. But there's 98% who did.

Alle meine Filme werden erstellt, weil ich bin fasziniert von einem Subjekt.. Manchmal denke ich, es gibt nur eine gewisse Besessenheit über alles - wenn Sie etwas, nur um es zu tun.. Viele Regisseure sind so.. Ich bin einfach sehr glücklich, dass die meisten meiner Filme gemacht zu werden.

It doesn't really matter if this movie's a success or not, because it's already out there.

Everybody knows that the industrialized nations are the worst offenders.

I thought it must be pure science fiction. But when I checked it out I found a lot of magazine articles that actually supported the theory behind the book which was incredible. That's when I decided to acquire the rights of the book and everything went from there.

When you find something where you can give people a message and still make it an exciting movie, you get very, very excited about something. You probably even work harder than you normally do.

It's like everybody is obsessed with Hollywood movies worldwide. And even though everybody hates the Americans, they're still watching American movies.

There's a rule in Hollywood: stay away from water and stay away from snow, and I had both.

It is very important to tell this story from the victims' point-of-view. I realized that with independent financing, somebody has to be the locomotive. So I'm putting my own money into it.

I think sport in general affects what people see in movies. I always try to explain to people in Hollywood that we have to make movies more like sport because, in sport, everything can happen and it's so much better than movies in some ways.

Wow! Look at New York blow up!

I'm a filmmaker, not a scientist.

With Jedi, I was amazed that you could make a half a movie out of a finale.

I'm only a stupid filmmaker.

The movie is fiction, ... We'd like to keep it that way.