My films can be considered political action against the tyranny of good taste.

It wasn't until I started reading and found books they wouldn't let us read in school that I discovered you could be insane and happy and have a good life without being like everybody else.

Don’t sleep with people who don’t read.

My idea of an interesting person is someone who is quite proud of their seemingly abnormal life and turns their disadvantage into a career.

True success is figuring out your life and career so you never have to be around jerks.

Without obsession, life is nothing.

[My catholic education] sticked with me. It caused the rage I had to make 'Pink Flamingos.'

Being rich is not about how much money you have or how many homes you own; it's the freedom to buy any book you want without looking at the price and wondering if you can afford it.

Do we secretly idolize our imagined opposites, yearning to become the role models for others we know we could never be for ourselves?

I like hard movies; I like ones that are basically the opposite of a date movie.

The "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" hitchhiker really made people never want to hitchhike again - the hitcher, the show. Hitchhiking is always vaguely sexual.

The sufferings which may be observed nowadays - they are so widespread and so vast - but people speak nevertheless about a certain moral improvement which society has achieved…

You want me to lie to you?" said McKay. I shrugged. Why not? I didn't mind lies.

We can win respect in the world only if we are strong internally and can banish poverty and unemployment from our country.

I don't know if I believe in marriage. I believe in family, love and children.

You know you're getting old when you stoop to tie your shoelaces and wonder what else you could do while you're down there.

You can't unscramble eggs.

If Americans thought music and art belonged together, they wouldn't have the Grammys.

Things move so quickly on set. When you're about to do another take and you have a minute to figure out what you're doing, you just kind of determine how you're going to do it on the spot.

Impressing a bunch of snooty teenagers is a pretty lame life goal to have.

When you catch other people with a sound like yours, that's when you know you did something.