I love editing. I think I like it more than any other phase of film making. If I wanted to be frivolous, I might say that everything that precedes editing is merely a way of producing film to edit.

Never say no to an idea - you never know how that idea will ignite another idea.

However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

The great nations have always acted like gangsters, and the small nations like prostitutes.

The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good.

I do not always know what I want, but I do know what I don't want.

You're an idealist, and I pity you as I would the village idiot.

A film is - or should be - more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what's behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later.

Be suspicious of people who have, or crave, power. Never, ever go near power. Don't become friends with anyone who has real power. It's dangerous.

The very meaninglessness of life forces man to create his own meaning.

Beneath the skin of everything is something nobody can know.

Perfect grammar--persistent, continuous, sustained--is the fourth dimension, so to speak: many have sought it, but none has found it.

Life and death and rebirth live within me.

I love being a gypsy. Home is between New York and California.

It ain't whatcha say, it's the way howcha say it.

God understands. And God understands that part of us which is more than we think we are.

Do not compare yourself to others. You have a unique destiny and mission that only you can accomplish.

Art is either a plagiarist or a revolutionist.

Prayer can do anything that God can do.

Bring me a girl, they're always the best. You put 'em on stage, and you have 'em undress.