I was in Japan, and my assistant director had worked with Kurosawa. I used quite of number of Kurosawa's crew.

I only storyboard scenes that require special effects, where it is necessary to communicate through pictures.

You can't get an actor to do something that is beyond his range, so you have to be aware of the range of the actor and, if necessary, alter the part to suit the actor.

All the great legends are Templates for human behavior. I would define a myth as a story that has survived.

The more extreme and the more expressed that passion is, the more unbearable does life seem without it. It reminds us that if passion dies or is denied, we are partly dead.

Black and white is much closer to the condition of dreaming. It links you to the subconscious and I think that was part of the great appeal of movies originally.. this strange otherness.

Movie-making is the process of turning money into light. All they have at the end of the day is images flickering on a wall.

It's so easy to manipulate an audience, but it's nearly always clear that you are being manipulated. I think even people that are not critically attuned are aware of cynical manipulation in film.

What is passion? Passion is surely the becoming of a person.

Black-and-white gives you that sort of parallel world. Also, it's very close to the condition of dreaming, to the unconscious.

I think most films are too predictable. They follow familiar patterns. I suppose audiences like to know where they stand but I like films that take me by surprise, take unexpected turns and twists.

Sometimes the silence is the loudest thing in the room.

Although the world is full of suffering it is also full of the overcoming of it.

Democracy is an experimental system. I like it when states try out new ideas. I think we ought to expand, not contract, our federalist system.

I just want to be a good friend to people, that's all.

To debate political objectives, views, and goals is the most American thing conceivable.

There are moments when I think, Everyone is evil!

To believe in immortality is one thing, but it is first needful to believe in life.

Rumour was the messenger Of defamation, and so swift, that none Could be the first to tell an evil tale.

What I did wrong had nothing to do with drugs or cocaine.

I will speak daggers to her, but use none.