A work of art doesn't dare you to realize it. It germinates and gestates by itself.

The directing of a picture involves coming out of your individual loneliness and taking a controlling part in putting together a small world.

I don't try to guess what a million people will like. It's hard enough to know what I like.

Hollywood has always been a cage...a cage to catch our dreams

A picture is made. You put a frame around it and move on. And one day you die. That is all there is to it.

Most people never have to face the fact that at the right time and the right place they're capable of anything.

What to do when inspiration doesn't come; be careful not to spook, get the wind up, force things into position. You must wait around until the idea comes.

I prefer to think that God is not dead, just drunk.

Once you have found the right shot to introduce the scene-written your first declarative sentence-then the rest flows. You've found the key to the whole scene.

I relieve myself from the rigours of directing by casting the movie correctly.

Critics have never been able to discover a unifying theme in my films. For thatmatter, neither have I.

They are enlightened who join in this play knowing it as play, for people suffer only because they take as serious what the gods made for fun.

I got some news for you. One, there is no Jesus. Two, there is no God. Three, mind your own business and everything works out.

I deplored a system that made it more profitable not to work than to work. I wanted to help change all that.

Pain of love lasts a lifetime.

[On the legend that after being beheaded St. Denis walked six miles with his head in his hands:] It is only the first step that is difficult.

I think you're where you have to be and I'm not a person who wants to control things too much because I love surprises.

Commerce makes friends, religion makes enemies; the one enriches, and the other impoverishes; the one thrives best where the truth is told, the other where falsehoods are believed.

There are people who are not wealthy because they want to be comfortable.

Intelligence is useful. Energy is valuable. Integrity is essential.