Taika Waititi

“I think our first heroes with whom we discover flaws are our parents.”

“You have to let go of the control and allow things to develop. You need to have a flexible attitude, especially working with kids.”

“The stuff I'm passionate about is what I write; it isn't multi-million-dollar franchise movies.”

“I play music all the time because silence freaks me out.”

“New Zealand was kind of getting a reputation for making middle-of-the-road films that weren't really that unique. They were kind of New Zealand versions of overseas films, and for sure, havi...”

“Indigenous people in films, it's all, like, nose flutes and panpipes and, you know, people talking to ghosts... which I hate.”

“I wish I was less good-looking and more unpopular. Then I could get into politics and use my pent-up resentment about being ugly and unpopular to systematically destroy the country.”

“One of my favourite books when I was young was 'Wuthering Heights.'”

“I've never been a guy who was anal about housework. A typical Wellington flat when I was flatting was a warehouse with, basically, sheets hung up for walls.”

“New Zealand was such a weird place in the 1980s. For instance, we used to have this commercial in the late 1970s where this guy drives this car and stops outside a corner store. He goes in t...”

“I actually keep having this one recurring dream where I'm a little number standing in a line of other numbers that look identical to me. Then there are more and more of these numbers that fo...”

“People overcoming the odds is actually a really important part of humanity, and I don't think we kind of get to celebrate that as much as we should.”

“Independent films are really the best ones out there. They're the most original stories, and they're very good.”

“The thing for me is that 'Thor' was an indie film that just had a few more zeros on the budget. At heart, it is just a simple story about a guy trying to get home to deal with someone who ha...”

“I'm in all my films, I can't help it. I just jam myself in there if there's a space.”

“There are 100,000 versions of Jeff Goldblum.”

“I think... part of life skills is also socialising... I think many people make the mistake of not going out... You can spend a little bit too much time with your nose in your book or with yo...”

“I'm not very proud of coming from a place that everyone thinks is this pure green country whereas, in reality, all our lakes and waterways are poison.”

“Kids are always very savvy. It doesn't take long for a kid to realize when an adult is a loser.”

“My main thing was painting; I was just going to do that.”