I felt it would to add a great deal to my legend for eccentricity.

Every great film should seem new every time you see it.

No good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough.

One difference between film noir and more straightforward crime pictures is that noir is more open to human flaws and likes to embed them in twisty plot lines.

To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts.

You can have a movie with hardly any cuts, or very few cuts, that is fascinating, you can't take your eyes away from it... Look at some of the long takes in Citizen Kane.

I lost faith in the Oscars the first year I was a movie critic - the year that Bonnie and Clyde didn't win.

I believe empathy is the most essential quality of civilization.

I think we have to get beyond the idea that we have to categorize people.

What every human being should do is eat a vegetarian diet based on whole foods. Period. That's it. Animal protein is bad for you. Dairy is bad for you. Forget the ads: Milk and eggs are bad for you.

I do not fear death. I know it is coming, and I do not fear it, because I believe there is nothing on the other side of death to fear.

You can’t lead people if you aren’t going to focus on what’s relevant to you and them. Don’t worry about who is and who is not watching you. Consider what you have to watch.

You can want and want and want, but if he doesn't want you back ... you might as well wish the sky were red.

Serving my generation with excellence will mean my generation can in turn lead with excellence.

One of the things we found out as we filmed with people who dealt with chimps, and with all animals, and it's really incredible, is their levels of intelligence that we don't recognize right away.

I was watching Orson Welles and Jean Vigo films at a ridiculously young age.

Male aggression and lust are the energizing factors in culture. They are men's tools of survival in the pagan vastness of female nature.

What really matters is what happens in us, not to us.

I didn't cry when I left free-booting, smash-and-grab papers that would have appeared to be far more natural homes for me and, at the risk of being vulgar, paid far better for my services.

Talent can pop up anywhere in the world, it's not just one city block.

Inasmuch as it's a culture, cinema is the only thing at our disposal with which we can recognize ourselves in today's images. As an instrument it's inevitably inadequate, but it's the only one.