- I like America to some extent. Take the Japanese for instance. They are complicated and tend to be reserved in expressing themselves. Sometimes, it is difficult for me to understand them. Americans are simple and clear. They are charming people. You will understand how good an individual American is. What I am not satisfied with America is that the nation cannot control the government and economy. Only a handful of people have the power to control the country.
- I don't compromise my values and I don't compromise my work. That's why I've been kicked from one network to the next: I won't give in.
- Americans, when they see Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), will see things they have never seen before.
- When asked by David Letterman why Disney didn't want to release his film Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004): "They watched it."
- In response to bootleg copies of the movie popping up: "Is it wrong for someone who's bought a film on DVD to let a friend watch it for free? Of course it's not. It never has been and never will be. I think information, art and ideas should be shared. I don't agree with the copyright laws, and I don't have a problem with people downloading the movie and sharing it with people as long as they're not trying to make a profit off my labour. I would oppose that. I do well enough already, and I made this film because I want the world to change. The more people who see it, the better, so I'm happy this is happening."
- "There is no terrorist threat!".
- About his follow-up film to Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) and the re-election of President George W. Bush, where Bush won 51% of the popular vote: "We want to get cameras rolling now and have it ready in two, three years. We want to document it. Fifty-one per cent of the American people lacked information (in this election), and we want to educate and enlighten them. They weren't told the truth. We're communicators and it's up to us to start doing it now. The official mourning period is over today, and there is a silver lining: George W. Bush is prohibited by law from running (for presidency) again."
- Thousands of Republicans turned to me chanting "Four more years.' I thought, 'That's strange, Republicans are usually good at math, but they're off by a few dozen months. Bush only has two months left.' So I held up two fingers to correct their miscalculation. But that just drove them into more of a frenzy.
- Upon winning his Academy Award for Bowling for Columbine (2002): "On behalf of our producers, Kathleen Glynn and Michael Donovan from Canada, I'd like to thank the Academy for this. I have invited my fellow documentary nominees on the stage with us, and we would like to say that they're here in solidarity with me because we like non-fiction. We like non-fiction and we live in fictitious times. We live in the time where we have fictitious election results that elect a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons. Whether it's the fiction of duct tape or fiction of orange alerts, we are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush, shame on you. [Interrupted by mingled boos and cheering] And any time you got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up. Thank you very much."
- "I thought it was a powerful piece of filmmaking. I'm a practicing Catholic, and you know I think Mel and I may be from different wings of the Catholic Church. My film might have been called 'The Compassion of the Christ.'" - On The Passion of the Christ (2004)
- "I remember going back to my hotel room that night, where they had all the pundits on post-Oscar and they were all like, 'That's the end of Michael Moore. That's the last we'll see of him.' By the end of the night, I believed it. I thought, 'No one is going to want to work with me in this town. I just ruined their big party.' We're all supposed to ignore that the war is going on and just have a party. Well, now here we three years later and it's not just me. It's a few other people saying that we weren't told the truth." - On The 75th Annual Academy Awards (2003) (TV)
- We've spent the better part of the year shooting our next movie, Sicko (2007). As we've done with our other films, we don't discuss them while we are making them. If people ask, we tell them 'Sicko' is a comedy about the 45 million people with no health care in the richest country on Earth.
- When I'm shooting a movie, I'm always in an invisible theater seat. I respect the fact that people have worked hard all week and want to go to the movies on the weekend and be entertained. But the struggle for me does not come between politics and entertainment, because I know that if I succeed in making an entertaining and funny or sad film, the things I want to say politically will come through very strong. If there ever is a struggle, making a good movie will always supersede the need to be noble.
- Having been bumped from Larry King last night for Paris Hilton, I am beginning to take things personally. The priorities in this country are seriously askew.
- About Sicko (2007): I made Bowling for Columbine (2002) in the hope the school shootings would stop and that we would address the issue of how easy it is to get a gun in the United States and, tragically, those school shootings continue. I made Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) and I said that we'd been led to a war under false pretense. I said it on the Oscar stage and I was booed off. It's my profound hope that people will listen this time.
- I think [homophobia is] a very ripe subject for someone like me to make a movie about. Simply because we are not there yet and it remains one of the last open wounds on our soul that we are not willing to fix yet... If you believe in equality, if you believe in standing up for the rights of all, especially for people most affected by bigotry and discrimination, then you have no choice but to be present and accounted for when it comes to standing up for gays and lesbians in our society.
- I am not sure what I am going to do for my next film, but I certainly believe that I have no right to tell another couple whether they can or cannot be married. That is simply not allowed in my ethical book of standards. I am a very spiritual person - I don't talk about it publicly that much, but I went to the seminary when I was in high school; I read the New Testament. And let me tell you something: There is nowhere in the four Gospels where Jesus uses the word homosexual, nor the word abortion. The right wing has appropriated this guy. It makes you think, what someone can do in your name a thousand years from now. And they have used him to attack gays and lesbians, when he never said a single word against people who are homosexual. Anyone who professes to be a Christian and does that is certainly not following the teachings of Jesus Christ.
- People want to see documentaries, but there's a disconnect between that desire and the exhibitors out there. We're not asking for charity. This could be on the 15th screen of a multiplex that would otherwise have the sixth showing of the new Harry Potter movie. Some of these films make $200 or $300 per screen.
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