What I found interesting is that it's human nature to have a family.

The first Decline I did was out of sheer love and appreciation for the music. In 1977, it was more about bands, because punk was a new form of music. It was groundbreaking and political.

I actually picked up copies of Decline I and II at a flea market once. I walked out without paying.

For the most part, studio movies have huge budgets. They don't do anything under 30 to 40 million. When you have that much money at stake, you have so many people breathing down your neck.

I got IRS records to finance what I wanted to do.

I like to think about society as being a flock of birds: There seems to be a common consciousness in different time periods, and the new common consciousness reacts to the old standards.

I was always into music. I think everyone is when they're a teenager, as a way to drown out the world.

I really feel kind of guilty spending 80 million dollars. People are starving in the world.

Nobody wanted to touch Decline III when they found out what it was about.

Arnold and Jamie Lee must have worked over the years with directors that did 50 takes, because I'd get like three takes or so and say, Ok, that's it, we're done.

Decline III, I funded myself, from the studio money. That, and I sold a lot of drugs. Kidding. Don't print that.

Why should man expect his prayer for mercy to be heard by What is above him when he shows no mercy to what is under him?

When the milk of human kindness turns sour, it is a singularly unpalatable draught.

If anyone hits me, they can expect to be hit back, and harder. I never turn the other cheek because in my experience that doesn't work.

My vision is to make touch positive social value in our culture.

Baseball will miss Steinbrenner. He did a lot of great things-and some not so great-but it's a sad day for baseball, no doubt about it. He was a winner, and he made the Yankees a winner.

We are defined by how we use our power.

No pen can give an adequate description of the all-pervading corruption produced by slavery.

When I am writing, I do not distinguish between the natural and supernatural. Everything seems real. That is my world, you could say.

You can call your turkey organic and torture it daily.

I have learned to consciously avoid letting that thought, It's been done, enter my creative process. You have to try not to edit yourself before you actually shoot.