Explore Quotes by Jonas Mekas

I brought Yoko Ono to New York and gave her her first job there. I was editing a magazine called 'Film Culture.'

Place means nothing to me. I can be at home anywhere.

In narrative cinema, a certain terminology has already been established: 'film noir,' 'Western,' even 'Spaghetti Western.' When we say 'film noir' we know what we are talking about. But in non-narrative cinema, we are a little bit lost. So sometimes, the only way to make us understand what we are talking about is to use the term 'avant-garde.'

We need less perfect but more free films.

In a meadow full of flowers, you cannot walk through and breathe those smells and see all those colors and remain angry. We have to support the beauty, the poetry, of life.

Seek the insignificant small but essential qualities, essential to life

For an artist, to be normal is a disaster

In Lithuania, I am known as a poet, and they don’t care about my cinema. In Europe they don’t know my poetry; in Europe, I am a filmmaker. But here, in the United States, I am only a maverick!

In the very end, civilizations perish because they listen to their politicians and not to their poets.

I make home movies-therefore I live. I live - therefore I make home movies.

Since 1950 I have been keeping a film diary. I have been walking around with my Bolex and reacting to the immediate reality: situations, friends, New York, seasons of the year. On some days I shoot ten frames, on others ten seconds, still on others ten minutes. Or I shoot nothing. Walden contains material from the years 1964-1968 strung together in chronological order.