Quotes by John Carpenter

• What scares me is what scares you. We're all afraid of the same things. That's why horror is such a powerful genre. All you have to do is ask yourself what frightens you and you'll know what frightens me.
• To make Michael Myers frightening, I had him walk like a man, not a monster.
• One could make money and get a career going with a low-budget horror film about killers attacking on holidays. It is always flattering to have somebody copy you.
• It's a very good time for horror. This business certainly has changed, but there's still room for serious horror films. Look at 28 Days Later, that's not a tongue-in-cheek picture.
• In Halloween, I viewed the characters as simply normal teenagers. Laurie, Jamie Lee's character, was shy and somewhat repressed. And Michael Myers, the killer, is definitely repressed. They have certain similarities.
• In England, I'm a horror movie director. In Germany, I'm a filmmaker. In the US, I'm a bum.
• Evil hiding among us is an ancient theme.
• I made a decision back in 1978 that, in a trade off for money when I directed Halloween, I would have my name above the title in order to basically brand these movies my own.
• Success is not measured by the acclaim of others, but by the fulfillment of one's own expectations.