The Oscar is the most valuable, but least expensive, item of world-wide public relations ever invented by any industry.

There are no rules in filmmaking. Only sins. And the cardinal sin is dullness.

No saint, no pope, no general, no sultan, has ever had the power that a filmmaker has; the power to talk to hundreds of millions of people for two hours in the dark.

There are no rules in filmmaking

My films must let every man, woman, and child know that God loves them, that I love them, and that peace and salvation will become a reality only when they all learn to love each other.

Friend, you are a divine mingle-mangle of guts and stardust. So hang in there! If doors opened for me, they can open for anyone.

I made mistakes in drama. I thought drama was when actors cried. But drama is when the audience cries.

A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something.

I always felt the world cannot fall apart as long as free men see the rainbow, feel the rain and hear the laugh of a child.

Most ideologies of the world are not for the individual. They're against the individual. Communism, fascism. Any kind of an ism - almost - they're against the individual.

My Advice to Young Filmmakers is This: Don't Follow Trends. Start Them!

Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance.

To succeed in life you need five things – a burning desire, a willingness to do whatever it takes, wisdom, incredible effort, and a commitment to never-ending improvement.

The streets of America may not have been paved with gold, but they were cobbled in middle-class dreams.

Let us labor to make the heart grow larger as we become older as spreading oak gives more shelter.

There are some secrets which do not permit themselves to be told.

When you fear something, learn as much about it as you can. Knowledge conquers fear.

Now, there is always a tremendous fear of science and progressing forward into areas of the unknown and it is a valid fear. Some of the genetic alterations of food are a little edgy.

I don't need exotic places to be stimulated. Out of familiarity comes nuance. The more you revisit a subject the more you're like to discover.

I would have liked to come back in 300; they did an origins film of 300 just recently, and it would have been fun to come back and see what happened to my character.

Sometimes humour is all we have to say the things that can't be said.