I'm in no way suggesting that I succeed, but it's inspiring to read somebody who does succeed and from whom, in a general way, you can draw examples and nourishment and sustenance.

My goal is to make as many films as possible about different aspects of American life.

I don't like to read novels where the novelist tells me what to think about the situation and the characters. I prefer to discover for myself.

I'm very careful of not being critical of other people's movies, which work in different styles. I think some of my movies can be interpreted as critical of their subjects.

I'm too busy to be nostalgic, which is one of the reasons to keep busy. I'm not a very sentimental person.

Documentary filmmaking ruins you for real life, because you learn to be extremely attentive.

Anybody whose mind is functioning at all can't be content with the way the world works.

In moviemaking, you learn to pay attention to detail, because so much is in the detail. And when you're shooting, you try to be very alert to what's going on, even if you're tired.

I do not think that my films or films by any other filmmaker represent "THE TRUTH." I do not feel the need to categorize my films or anyone else's.

It is always a problem to know what an image means.

Everything about a movie is manipulation.

I imagine it feels like bathing in ice to the person touching her. But how does it feel to her? Cold as she is, it must surely burn like fire.

I think humans are only capable of small moments of honesty. Then they get tired and back away. It's something to foster, this ability to keep it for longer. How to keep being honest and aware.

If there is a media in a country which deceives its own people, that country needs no other enemy!

Those who employ their modest talents as best they can do make a contribution to a better human future.

Purity means lack of hatred, jealousy, fear, greed and lust - the absence of anything that can stain consciousness.

The stories of past courage... can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul.

In our secular society, school has become the replacement for church, and like church it requires that its teachings must be taken on faith.

When I draw, I rule the world.

I love musicals, I started acting because I wanted to be in a musical.

The principle is competing against yourself.