I'd like to think that my films are personal enough to exist without hearkening back to their respective novels.

A director shouldn't get in the way of the movie, the story should.

The Exorcist' is amazing because it recognizes that silences can be as powerful as sound effects.

If you're going to succeed, you've got to be like one of those punch-drunk fighters in the old Warner Bros. boxing pictures: too stupid to fall down, you just keep slugging and stay on your feet.

Visual storytelling of one kind or another has been around since cavemen were drawing on the walls.

I think a story should take as long to tell as it is appropriate to that particular story.

Some of us have great original ideas and some of us depend on adaptations.

To me, length is an artificial and arbitrary factor in a film.

Boy, I'd hate to shoot on tape or disc or whatever the hell they're talking about. I love film.

The amazing thing about any movie is not whether it's good, but that it got made at all.

I just tell you what a pleasure it is to get back to the kind of filmmaking I used to be allowed to do.

The church and all Christians need to pray, but without playing an active part, it is impossible to impact the country

I don’t want just words. If that’s all you have for me, you’d better go

I've been readen th Bible an a hunten God fer a long while-off an on- but it ain't so easy as picken up a nickel off the floor.

Friendship can be really tested only in bad times.

I don't give a damn what people think.

Don’t yell at me when I just survived a near-death experience. (Abbie)

I don't wanna gain the whole world and lose my soul.

The ability to find meaning in the most difficult times, I think, is one of the most important skills of life.

This is kind of hard to articulate, but in broad outline, the United States is going to do what the United States has to do.

Scapegoating will go on forever. We need someone to blame - illegal immigrants, single moms, people in prison. We need someone to victimize.