Fears are all psychological. Being afraid of death, loss of a loved one and disfigurement are all powered by your mind, and that's very powerful stuff.

It's a very good time for horror. This business certainly has changed, but there's still room for serious horror films. Look at 28 Days Later, that's not a tongue-in-cheek picture.

The strongest human emotion is fear. It's the essence of any good thriller that, for a little while, you believe in the boogeyman.

Directing is all about storytelling. It's not about equipment, or anything else.

Evil hiding among us is an ancient theme.

To make Michael Myers frightening, I had him walk like a man, not a monster.

Movies are pieces of film stuck together in a certain rhythm, an absolute beat, like a musical composition. The rhythm you create affects the audience.

We all question our sanity. Everyone has had an experience of loss of control of something.

A lot of it [success] is luck. That's a huge part of it that no one wants to talk about. You just got to be in the right place at the right time.

Horror found me. I got into the movie business to make westerns.

I can play just about any keyboard but I can't read or write a note.

Yes, books are dangerous. They should be dangerous - they contain ideas.

I have zero tolerance for people with zero tolerance.

Two things control men's nature, instinct and experience.

There is ebb and flow. Leaving and coming. Flight and fall. Sing and silent. Reaching and reached.

The human heart is a lonely hunter-but the search for us southerners is more anguished.

I made up my mind, but I made it up both ways.

I think genius can have a lot to do with nerve. And permission.

A century from now it will no more occur to a normal person to mate with a person eugenically unfit than to marry a habitual criminal.

Life is a chain of small sorrows that lead to a great joy.

You did something because it had always been done, and the explanation was, ‘But we’ve always done it this way.’ A million dead people can’t have been wrong, can they?