Pirjo Honkasalo

As my films are born at the moment when they are reflected into another person's mind and memories, there are no misconceptions.…

— Pirjo Honkasalo

When I make a documentary I shoot very little but I hang around with my camera for a long time. I look…

— Pirjo Honkasalo

I had worked in fiction a lot before I started making documentaries, but when I was around 32 or 33-years-old I suddenly…

— Pirjo Honkasalo

I went to England when I was 13-years=old and then I went again when I was 14. When I went for the…

— Pirjo Honkasalo

In all my documentaries I did all the camera work, but in fiction I didn't want to do it myself. I think…

— Pirjo Honkasalo

When I auditioned actors I never make them act. I choose a long symphony, then I tell them to sit down and…

— Pirjo Honkasalo

At 13 I was someone that didn't have a personality yet. It's a fascinating period in a human life. It's so exciting…

— Pirjo Honkasalo

Every documentary is subjective. It's a total lie to say there are objective documentaries.

— Pirjo Honkasalo

I think that too often we, film directors, think that a big epic novel and feature film are the same. It's a…

— Pirjo Honkasalo

This is going to sound crazy, especially in America where there is a total inflation of the word "love," but in a…

— Pirjo Honkasalo

I went to film school when I was 17, and of course when you are very young you think that there is…

— Pirjo Honkasalo

We exaggerate the difference between documentary and fiction. I think that on some level a fiction film is also a documentary on…

— Pirjo Honkasalo

If you take a big epic novel and you shoot it, when you get to the editing room you notice that it…

— Pirjo Honkasalo

There is one thing where people are always right. It is when they are describing what they have been feeling when watching…

— Pirjo Honkasalo

You give your film away to the audience once it's done. I never look at my films after the premier. The film…

— Pirjo Honkasalo

Being a female director become as professional as your male colleagues and forget the whole question about being female. You are female…

— Pirjo Honkasalo

I like to get something that is impossible to verbally order. Sometimes it's something the person is not even conscious of, and…

— Pirjo Honkasalo

The cinematography was of course incredibly important to me because I graduated as a cinematographer.

— Pirjo Honkasalo

I don't think the concept of "directing actors" exists in the sense that if you get what you order from an actor…

— Pirjo Honkasalo

It's said that if two documentary filmmakers meet they talk about the world, if two fiction filmmakers meet they talk about the…

— Pirjo Honkasalo

If you fill your time as a director talking about lights and technique with the crew then it's frightening for the actors…

— Pirjo Honkasalo