George Lucas quotes of every kind

Lucas from the Star Wars Episode I 2000 Widescreen VHS intro:

Because of the kind of stories I'm telling with Star Wars I'm forced to move the medium forward, in order to tell my stories. If I would stay in a more traditional kind of filmmaking I wouldn't have to worry about any of this. After I finished the original series, I had been so frustrated with the fact that I couldn't really do a lot of the things that I had imagined. I was stuck with rubber puppets, I was stuck with people wearing rubber masks, and it was very limited in how I could actually tell a story.


A lot of people were very, very nervous in the beginning of [Episode I]. But everybody has come through in the most amazing way. The process of filmmaking has turned a corner, where, in the world of digital cinema, that's going to open up a lot of opportunities for people to more fully express their ideas.


And from Ben Burtt:
In an odd way, George's concept for [Episode I] is very much inline with what he wanted in the first films. But that vision is now been released.

More from the Episode II commentaries.

The tough part about this scene is that Obi-Wan is a bit of the conservative of the two, and his character has been established primarily by Alec Guinness in the first trilogy, but I still wanted to give Obi-Wan some charm and some wit and make him a likable character, and realized that even though he's the stern task-master and mentor he still cares about Anakin, and he's more frustrated with their relationship; ya know, Anakin and his sort of unwillingness to go along with the rules. Obi-Wan finds himself in the same situation actually that he had with Qui-Gon Jinn, where Qui-Gon Jinn was constantly sort of moving beyond the bounds. And now he's got an apprentice who is doing the same thing


We do have a little bit of a chance to talk about politics and the Jedis' disenchantment with the political process due to the corruption and the ineffectiveness of the Senate.


I'm constantly trying to deal with the fact that Anakin is slightly ahead of himself at all times; you think that he's gone a little bit too far and he's made a mistake and then you realize that he's actually very clever - and we do that a couple times. And I like trying to keep a kind of nonchalant attitude about this action between the two Jedi, like, this is all in a day's work.


I had all these hints that Palpatine had been helping Anakin but I needed an explicit scene that actually spelled it out - where you could see some of Anakin's dialogue, later on, has come from Palpatine.


We can see that Palpatine is sorta boosting Anakin's ego to make him feel that he's better than, possibly, he really is. A lot of his philosophies and things are repeated later on by Anakin when he gets into situations about how he should be allowed more freedom, more assignments. Then we contrast that with the three Jedi and show Obi-Wan's concern about the fact that his apprentice is getting ahead of himself, and he's arrogant. And Obi-Wan is kinda put down a little bit by Yoda there, because Yoda says that that arrogance exists in the older Jedi too. Which is a way of warning Obi-Wan that he may be suffering the same hubris.


Intercutting Obi-Wan's mystery and searching for the killer with Anakin and Padmé, which is a rather passive thing, gave me a chance to tell this love story. Which is what I call "love story light". I only had a few scenes available to me to kind of establish their feelings for one another and go from the kind of the formality of the first scene they had together in the apartment to the more familiar scenes that are coming up later. This is kind of a transitional scene where Padmé first gets the idea that Anakin's intentions really are more serious than she thought because when he reveals that he has, ya know, been dreaming about her a lot and thinking about her a lot over the last ten years in slightly romantic ways, it causes them both a bit of embarrassment.



When he starts touching her back and touching her arm, and she doesn't really respond and say, you know, "Take your hands off me", it signals to him that possibly he can make a move. Something I wanted to do without a lot of talking, but I wanted it to be one of those kind of magical moments.


In turning and in making Boba the son, it adds more character ultimately to Jango, because I wanted to create a villain in this one that, ya know, had a little bit of heart, had a little bit of sentimentality to him. He wasn't just you know, Darth Maul, all evil. So, this gave me the opportunity to do that and at the same time kind of explore the idea of where Boba Fett came from.


The scene in the field; I wanted to have one scene kinda outdoors, we've been inside a lot. We know we have a lot of waterfalls on Naboo, I wanted to make a kind of super waterfall scene and have something really gorgeous outdoors. So we have this little picnic where Anakin brings out the uncomfortable subject of previous boyfriends, which boys have a tendency to do. And then we get into this political discussion which allows us to get a little insight into Anakin and Palpatine's influence over Anakin and some of his thought process. Anakin realizes here that he's gone a little bit too far with her and then turns it into a joke.
I wanted to do a goofy little scene where they get to roll around in the grass which allows them to get a little more physically close to each other without that romantic edge. You know, it's got a slight undercurrent of romance, but it's more of an innocent, playful, friendship thing.



This is obviously a very pivotal scene for Anakin because this is reuniting with his mother and his youth, and at the same time dealing with his inability to let go of his emotions and allow himself to accept the inevitable. The fact that everything must change and that things come and go through his life and that he can't hold onto things, which is a basic Jedi philosophy that he isn't willing to accept emotionally, and the reason that is is because he was raised by his mother rather than the Jedi. If he'd have been taken in his first year and started to study to be a Jedi, he wouldn't have this particular connection as strong as it is and he'd have been trained to love people, but not to become attached to them. But he has become attached to his mother and he will become attached to Padmé. And these things are, for a Jedi, who needs to have a clear mind and not be influenced by threats to their attachments, a dangerous situation. And it feeds into fear of losing things, which feeds into greed, wanting to keep things, wanting to keep his possessions and things that he should be letting go of. His fear of losing her turns to anger at losing her, which ultimately turns to revenge in wiping out the village.
The scene with the Tusken Raiders is the first scene that ultimately takes him on the road to the dark side. I mean he's been prepping for this, but that's the one where he's sort of doing something that is completely inappropriate.

In that scene, also which we don't see, we cut to Yoda who is meditating, who hears this offscreen, and we do hear a voice in there. And that voice is the voice of Qui-Gon Jinn. So we very subtly establish that in this rather intense, emotional connection that Yoda is feeling the pain and suffering of Anakin and the Tusken Raiders, he's also making a connection unwittingly with Qui-Gon Jinn. And up to this point we haven't really established that you can make a connection with the departed in this world, and that will become a factor in the next movie. Lots of issues sort of come out of that but this is the very beginning of that- Yoda making a connection with Qui-Gon Jinn in the middle of Anakin's pain.


The scene in the garage here, we begin to see that what he's really upset about is the fact that he's not powerful enough. That if he had more power, he could've kept his mother. He could've saved her and she could've been in his life. That relationship could've stayed there if he'd have been just powerful enough. He's greedy in that he wants to keep his mother around, he's greedy in that he wants to become more powerful in order to control things, in order to keep the things around that he wants. There's a lot of connections here with the beginning of him sliding into the dark side.
And it also shows his jealousy and anger at Obi-Wan and blaming everyone else for his inability to be as powerful as he wants to be, which he here swears that he will be. So here he sort of lays out his ambition and you'll see later on his ambition and his dialogue here is the same as Dooku's. He says "I will become more powerful than any Jedi." And you'll hear later on Dooku will say, "I have become more powerful than any Jedi." So you're going start to see everybody saying the same thing. And Dooku is kind of the fallen Jedi who was converted to the dark side because the other Sith Lord didn't have time to start from scratch, and so we can see that that's where this is going to lead which is that it is possible for a Jedi to be converted. It is possible for a Jedi to want to become more powerful, and control things. Because of that, and because he was unwilling to let go of his mother, because he was so attached to her, he committed this terrible revenge on the Tusken Raiders.
The key part of this scene ultimately is Anakin saying "I'm not going to let this happen again." We're cementing his determination to become the most powerful Jedi. The only way you can really do that is to go to the dark side because the dark side is more powerful. If you want the ultimate power you really have to go to the stronger side which is the dark side, but ultimately it would be your undoing. But it's that need for power and the need for power in order to satisfy your greed to keep things and to not let go of things and to allow the natural course of life to go on - which is that things come and go, and to be able to accept the changes that happen around you and not want to keep moments forever frozen in time.

More Lucas quotes on Anakin's fall, Midi-chlorians, balance and symbiosis.


The message is you can't possess things, you can't hold on to them. You have to accept change, you have to accept the fact that things transition. And so as you try to hold on to things or you become afraid that you're going to lose things, then you begin to crave the power to control those things, and then you start to become greedy, and then you turn into a bad person.
-CNN's Countdown to the Clones, 2002


Lucas: At some point you do have to become an independent person. And [TPM] is about learning to let go of your needs, so to speak, and think of the needs of others.

Moyers: So Star Wars, yes, it's about cosmic, galactic, epic struggles, but it's at heart about a family. The large myth, set in a local family.

Lucas: Most myths center around characters and a hero. And it's about how you conduct yourself as you go through the hero's journey, which everyone goes through. It's especially relevant when you go through this transition phase... That you must let go of your past and must embrace your future. And in your own self, by yourself, figure out what path you're going to go down.
-The Mythology of Star Wars with Bill Moyers, 1999.


What these films deal with is that we all have good and evil inside of us, and that we can choose which way we want the balance to go. Star Wars is made up of many themes, it's not just a single theme. One is our relationship to machines, which is fearful, but also benign, they are an extension of the human, not mean in themselves. The issue of friendship, your obligation to your fellow man, to other people who are around you. This is a world where evil has run amuck. But you have control over your destiny, that you have a destiny, that you have many paths to walk down, and you may have a great destiny, but if you decide not to walk down that path your life might not be as satisfying, than if you wake up and listen to your inner feelings and realize what it is you have a particular talent for and what contributions you can make to society.
-Bill Moyers interview, 1999.


If good and evil are mixed things become blurred, there would be nothing between good and evil, everything is gray. In each of us we to have balance these emotions, and in the Star Wars saga the most important point is balance, balance between everything. It is dangerous to lose this. In The Phantom Menace one of the Jedi Council already knows the balance of the Force is starting to slip, and will slip further. It is obvious to this person that the Sith are going to destroy this balance. On the other hand a prediction which is referred to states someone will replace the balance in the future. At the right time a balance may again be created, but presently it is being eroded by dark forces.
-Cut Magazine Interview 1999.


The film is ultimately about the dark side and the light side, and those sides are designed around compassion and greed. The issue of greed, of getting things and owning things and having things and not being able to let go of things, is the opposite of compassion—of not thinking of yourself all the time. These are the two sides—the good force and the bad force. They're the simplest parts of a complex cosmic construction.
-Time Magazine article, 1999


The dark side is always there. It is experienced daily by people. It is like a huge cancer, alive, festering—both a reminder of a moral state and, at the same time, a symptom and symbol of a very sick society.
-The Mythology of Star Wars, Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth DVD, 2001


I wanted to have this mythological footing because I was basing the films on the idea that the Force has two sides, the good side, the evil side, and they both need to be there. Most religions are built on that, whether it's called yin and yang, God and the devil—everything is built on the push-pull tension created by two sides of the equation. Right from the very beginning, that was the key issue in Star Wars.
-Time Magazine Article 2002.


The overriding philosophy in Episode I—and in all the Star Wars movies, for that matter—is the balance between good and evil. The Force itself breaks into two sides: the living Force and a greater, cosmic Force. The living Force makes you sensitive to other living things, makes you intuitive, and allows you to read other people's minds, etc. But the greater Force has to do with destiny. In working with the Force, you can find your destiny and you can choose to either follow it or not.
-George Lucas, quoted in L. Bouzereau, Star Wars: The Making of Episode I, 1999


One of the themes throughout the films is that the Sith Lords, when they started out thousands of years ago, embraced the dark side. They were greedy and self-centered and they all wanted to take over, so they killed each other. Eventually there was only one left, and that one took on an apprentice. And for thousands of years, the master would teach the apprentice, the master would die, the apprentice would then teach another apprentice, the master, and so on. But there could never be any more than two of them, because if there were, they would try to get rid of the leader, which is exactly what Vader was trying to do, and that's exactly what the Emperor was trying to do. The Emperor was trying to get rid of Vader, and Vader was trying to get rid of the Emperor. And that is the antithesis of a symbiotic relationship, in which if you do that, you become cancer, and you eventually kill the host, and everything dies.
-George Lucas, Bill Moyers Time Magazine Interview; 1999.


As explained in The Clone Wars episode “Voices”, Qui-Gon Jinn spent time with five Force Priestesses on their planet, the Wellspring of Life. They explained to him how he could keep his persona when he died and joined the cosmic Force. Qui-Gon learned how to hear the cosmic Force and when he died in Episode I he joined the cosmic Force with his persona intact and was able to talk to Yoda in Episode III. When he was there, he learned more about how to become a Force ghost to keep your identity.
-George Lucas


And the rest of this interview.
Couric: Pleasant, and also with clear delineations between good and evil, you think? Do you think that's part of the appeal?

Lucas: I think it deals with good and evil in black and white terms - which is, there's good and there's evil, and it doesn't mix them up and make them all gray where everything is good and evil. It says basically that we're all good and we're all evil, and we have a choice - as opposed to, there's no hope, we're just all gray and there's nothing we can do about it.
-MSNBC's Time and Again: Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, 1999

I really like those quotes that pertain to the psychology of the characters and their relationships. Those are the most fascinating quotes to me. Lucas doesn't talk about those subjects as often, but when he does, it's really illuminating.


The above quote was a real surprising treat, because many of us had for years thrown around the idea that Obi-Wan was an ill-fitting master for Anakin and that he was too young and inexperienced to take on an apprentice. Lucas is quoted as saying something similar in the prequel archives book:



This I think is the most key quote that explains Anakin's transformation into Vader:

George on that other Sci-Fi franchise with Star in the title which began 58 years ago today.
"I started writing Star Wars sort of in the heyday of the syndication part of Star Trek.
I think the thing i was attracted to the most about Star Trek is that it completely got rid of all the mundane, boring angle of real space.
And just said, 'Well, let's just go out and go where no one else dared to go' [...] Star Trek And Star Wars are not reality shows; They're imagination shows.
The story is really the thing that makes it work."

Comparing Star Wars to Star Trek,
"What i was doing was more space opera than science-fiction.
Star Trek more sort of intellectual mystery. It wasn't action oriented.
Star Wars was action oriented.

"I couldn't even contemplate what would happen if you put the Enterprise up against the Millennium Falcon.
You know, it's an intellectual exercise which you know, could have any outcome you want."