It would have been impossible to get 'The Verdict' off the ground without Paul Newman obviously, but today without any star, kind of a dramatic piece would be very tough.

The most important thing is the story. Not the script, but the story.

It wasn't easy once I started running 20th Century Fox. There were a lot of eyebrows raised, and it wasn't easy, that transition, because, you know, I had big shoes to fill and I was very young, 27.

Star quality is one of the most difficult things to describe. It emanates from the person, and he may not even understand it himself. It's a quality that separates the star from the rest of us.

These days, right now, these are the good old days. I've always approached it that way. That's why I'm still working. I'm not the guy who is ready to sit by the pool.

I think the executives at the studios today realize that it's easier and safer to go the - to some known territory which is a remake of a successful film. It's less chancy than taking a fresh idea.

These last few years, working with Tim Burton, it's been the best time I've ever had.

The Sound of Music' did more damage to the industry than any other picture. Everyone tried to copy it. We were the biggest offenders.

I had a tough time 12 years ago getting 'Driving Miss Daisy' off the ground. Today, it would be impossible.

He may have confused honor with with with ruthlessness.

The truth is we've not really developed a fiction that can accommodate the full tumult the zaniness and crazed quality of modern experience.

Art begins with resistance - at the point where resistance is overcome. No human masterpiece has ever been created without great labor.

Those who arrived on America's tanks are not credible in Iraq.

I recently watched that Lucie Arnaz-produced documentary [Lucy and Desi: A Home Movie, 1992] about her parents [Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz], and I saw so much of my own childhood there.

When I do work, I feel the same sort of urgency as I ever did. If I didn't feel that, I don't think I would wish to be doing it. I wouldn't really see the point.

To have everything is to possess nothing.

I didn’t have any plans to become a wrestler until about a year before I started.

There are very few people who do what I do.

Be truthful, and the result is bound to be amazingly interesting.