For sheer strength of character, I wouldn't have dared to cross swords with Callas. I would rather have gone six rounds with Jack Dempsey.

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.

Don't turn blue all over now.

Anything other than death is a minor injury.

I was a film student. I became an actor but I thought I'd be pursuing filmmaking originally.

It was wisely said, by a man of great observation, that there are as many miseries beyond riches as on this side of them.

When I first went into the active Army, you could tell someone to move a chair across the room. Now you have to tell them why.

A healthy body isn't defined by weight or size. It's about so much more.

It really matters what you listen to. . . . Select music that will strengthen your spirit.

A coxcomb is ugly all over with the effectation of a fine gentleman.

I'm going to keep on keeping on as long as I've got my health and strength, and God gives me that will to do it.

I was the only white kid in my neighborhood for most of my youth even in high school, so reverse racism was just as apparent as racism.