Paradise is too perfect for humanity.

I'm very interested in portraying homosexual man and woman in my films because I'm interested in their lives and their problems.

Horror is like a serpent; always shedding its skin, always changing. And it will always come back. It can't be hidden away like the guilty secrets we try to keep in our subconscious.

Without psychology, the horror film doesn't exist.

Each film I make changes me in some way. When I start the picture I'm one person and by the time I finish I'm another.

Horror by definition is the emotion of pure revulsion. Terror of the same standard, is that of fearful anticipation.

You must push everything to the absolute limit or else life will be boring.

I like films to have something inside, I don't mean a message, I mean something from the soul.

The psychiatrists examine you and ask you about your life and work, and then they decide whether your film can be shown or not. It's a horrible experience.

I wanted to get back to my style of 20 years ago after a long period of exploring horror and fantasy themes.

The Opera was a very cold film, a hopeless and dark film, no hope, no love.

Stop the pity party! Your sorrow is full and complete when you go through unfortunate circumstances and decide to mourn for life as a result of the unexpected.

The body's a funny thing. It's so full of surprises that it makes conventional wisdom seem silly.

We should learn by reflection on the misfortunes of others that there is nothing singular in those which befall ourselves.

I never consciously set out to be an actor. I just kind of did whatever acting I could do.

Freaks are revolutionaries, and revolutionaries are freaks

Enthusiasm is the inspiration of everything great. Without it no man is to be feared, and with it none despised.

I discovered John Fante when I was 17 years old - strangely, not through Charles Bukowski, but through William Saroyan, who was his drinking buddy.

What you get is a living-what you give is a life.

A lot of our young people are sleep-walking, dreaming that they're awake, and lots of aspects of society initially go about keeping it so.

When your child is looking up at you and you are putting them to bed at night, and they are just lying there, you have to remind yourself that's what it's all about.