...and a director must

A director must be able to write:

"We're willing to write for other people but we wouldn't direct a script written by somebody else...writing a script takes a few weeks, sometimes a few months. Directing a film can take up to two years of our lives. So it better be worth it!" - Ethan Coen

"...director who realizes somebody else's screenplay without being involved in it becomes a mere illustrator, resulting in dead and monotonous films" - Andrei Tarkovsky

...but, a director must always think in images (and draw and animate!):

"We like telling stories. But we don't see the writing as the best form to do that. It's just a step. We really think in terms of images." - Joel Coen

"...I would advise any future filmmaker to take a stab at animation...when you work in animation you control everything and do everything yourself: costumes, sets, lightning, framing and even, in a way, actor direction" - Jean-Pierre Jeunet

"When you're sent something and read it, either you can see it while you read it, or you can't." -
Steven Soderbergh

"It is not a just image, it is just an image" - Jean Luc Goddard

"I dream for a living." - Steven Spielberg

also, a director should be able to shoot and edit (and record sound) :

"The film of tomorrow will not be directed by civil servants of the camera, but by artists for whom shooting a film constitutes a wonderful and thrilling adventure." - Francois Truffaut

"I'm obsessed by the camera" - Bernardo Bertolucci

"What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out." - Alfred Hitchcock

"Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second." - Jean-Luc Godard

"...to film the unspoken" - Claude Sautet

A director may steal:

"...one could say that the tribute is borrowing and then copying is theft. For me, only theft is justifiable. If it's necessary, one should never hesitate; every filmmaker does it"- Pedro Almodovar

"I steal from every movie ever made." - Quentin Tarantino

"Self-plagiarism is style." - Alfred Hitchcock

but, the director better know what he is talking about:

"I think the duty of a filmmaker is to tell the story he wants to tell, which means that you have to know what the hell you're talking about." - Martin Scorsese

"I'm a storyteller - that's the chief function of a director. And they're moving pictures, let's make 'em move!" - Howard Hawks

"If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed." - Stanley Kubrick

and although he may not know a lot else:

"...its a tension between knowing exactly what you want or being able to change it according to the circumstances..." - Martin Scorsese

"The biggest danger I would warn any future filmmaker about is to think that you know everything about cinema." - Woody Allen

"I don't think there's any artist of any value who doesn't doubt what they're doing." - Francis Ford Coppola

"...when I get on the set, I don't know anything." - Woody Allen

he should still be a know-it-all:

"The profession of film director can and should be such a high and precious one; that no man aspiring to it can disregard any knowledge that will make him a better film director or human being." - Sergei Eisenstein

A director must think different different different:

"I failed to make the chess team because of my height." - Woody Allen

"The concept of absurdity is something I'm attracted to." - David Lynch

"A story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end... but not necessarily in that order." - Jean-Luc Godard

"Why pay a dollar for a bookmark? Why not use the dollar for a bookmark?" - Steven Spielberg

"Thank God I'm an atheist." - Luis Bunuel

and whatever happens, a director must keep trying trying trying:

"I associate my motion picture career more with being unhappy and scared, or being under the gun, than with anything pleasant." - Francis Ford Coppola

"To be or not to be. That's not really a question." - Jean-Luc Godard

"Most of the time I don't have much fun. The rest of the time I don't have any fun at all." - Woody Allen

A director must always stay true to the self:

"All art is autobiographical. The pearl is the oyster's autobiography." - Federico Fellini

"As for me, well, I make films for myself" - Martin Scorsese

"Each time I view my work after a film is finished: I see only the mistakes" - Jean-Pierre Jeunet

"...it has to do with the way you tell that story..." - David Lynch

but then, when it's all there, the director must, in the end, lie:

"Lying is like alcoholism. You are always recovering." - Steven Soderbergh

"I have always preferred the reflection of the life to life itself." -Francois Truffaut

"Cinema is the most beautiful fraud in the world. " - Jean Luc Goddard