You will never see'Altman's Great Film of the Seventies: The Director's Cut' because you have never seen a film of mine that wasn't the director's cut. I have never permitted it.

Filmmaking is a chance to live many lifetimes.

I never knew what I wanted, except that it was something I hadn't seen before.

[The Player is] not a truthful indictment of Hollywood. It's much uglier than I portrayed it, but nobody would've been interested if I'd shown just how sadistic, cruel and self-orientated it is.

Your own ego is the only trap that I think you can fall into.

I love fishing. You put that line in the water and you don't know what's on the other end. Your imagination is under there.

Chance is another name that we give to our mistakes. And all of the best things in my films are mistakes.

I don't think screenplay writing is the same as writing - I mean, I think it's blueprinting.

If you have a child who is seven feet tall, you don't cut off his head or his legs. You buy him a bigger bed and hope he plays basketball.

All of my films deal with the same thing: striving, socially and culturally, to stay alive.

What is an ending? There's no such thing. Death is the only ending.

Give people the chance to change.

Everybody seems to be wasting their time online. There is such a narcissistic attitude. It's such a strange world.

It takes strength to make your way through grief, to grab hold of life and let it pull you forward.

I think growing up in a big family taught me a lot of problem solving and how to share and compromise, and that's been helpful in my marriage.

It's OK to be different.

Curses are children of hate; they belong to the wrong family! Prayers are better than curses!

Los Angeles is just New York lying down.

Foreign trade clearly holds down the cost of products we buy.

Your days at the most cannot be very long, so use them to the best of your ability for the glory of God and the benefit of your generation.

I adore America. It's an extraordinary country. A new country.