Critics have never been able to discover a unifying theme in my films. For thatmatter, neither have I.

The directing of a picture involves coming out of your individual loneliness and taking a controlling part in putting together a small world.

I don't try to guess what a million people will like. It's hard enough to know what I like.

A work of art doesn't dare you to realize it. It germinates and gestates by itself.

Hollywood has always been a cage...a cage to catch our dreams

A picture is made. You put a frame around it and move on. And one day you die. That is all there is to it.

Most people never have to face the fact that at the right time and the right place they're capable of anything.

What to do when inspiration doesn't come; be careful not to spook, get the wind up, force things into position. You must wait around until the idea comes.

I prefer to think that God is not dead, just drunk.

Once you have found the right shot to introduce the scene-written your first declarative sentence-then the rest flows. You've found the key to the whole scene.

I relieve myself from the rigours of directing by casting the movie correctly.

As long as there have been women." Mom told me, "there have been ways to punish them for being women.

...you hold a poemthat functions half as personalnote and half as telescopeto the heightsawaiting us all.

If you are reading this, you are still alive, and, therefore, the story is not over. Something else could happen.

From the intellectual point of view an abyss may exist between a great mathematician and his boot maker, but from the point of view of character the difference is most often slight or non-existent

Success itself doesn't give you happiness. It's what you do with your success that gives you happiness.

It’s interesting to see how other people react to an oversharer.

A good guide will take you through the more important streets more often than he takes you down side streets; a bad guide will do the opposite. In philosophy I'm a rather bad guide.

The Petal table is a flower that is always in bloom.

I think the main thing over time is that you gain confidence and are able to tell your story better and stronger.