Cinema is a territory. It exists outside of movies. It's a place I live in. It's a way of seeing things, of experiencing life. But making films, that's supposed to be a profession.

I thank Henry James for the scene in the hotel room, that I stole from Portrait Of A Lady… This particular scene is the most beautiful scene ever written.

I care about cinema even though I haven't made many films.

I'm not a cineaste. I've made so few films. Sometimes it feels each one is the last one or the first one.

I don't work with people who ask me questions.

It's incredible how much cinema can do. We forget.

Every film starts with two or three images. Then I try to edit these images.

The virtual world is not the enemy. The pioneers invented a world they believed in, but the followers must follow that world whether they believe in it or not.

My films start with images, a few images and a few feelings, and I try to edit them together to see the correspondence between these images and these feelings.

I'm not only my films, but I'm pretty much my films.

When I was 16 I discovered this island called cinema and I thought: 'Oh how wonderful, I'm ready.

What is to be gained if we are so intent in reaching out to the unchurched that we then unchurch the reached?

I tell you, I'm half tempted to break into CIA custody just so I can break Joe Solomon out of CIA custody just so I can break Joe Solomon

The laws of thought are also the laws of things: of things in the remotest space and the remotest time.

I'm no Bob Gibson. I can tell you that.

The universe shrank to Curran and his pain. I had to break him free. Nothing else mattered.

As a fiction writer, of course, you need to take some leeway with certain aspects of history to make the story work.

You should make an effort on stage because it's a performance. The stage should be glittery and camp, but I don't go down the shops in full stage gear.

You stupid jackass," Ian said. "Who's got the crush on a worm, bro? You gonna call me stupid?

I do films which get me out of my comedian routine so that I don't get bored being a stand-up comedian. And with films, it's here today, gone tomorrow. So stand-up comedy is here to stay for me.

Managing by results only makes things worse.