I'm always involved with casting my movies. I have final word on it.

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.

Help does not come from anywhere outside - it comes only from within ourselves.

Did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out there..

Honestly, it's very satisfying, and I'm very, very happy about how successful the last few years have been... It's great for the people who supported me early on to see the success I'm enjoying now.

There are two kinds of writer: those that make you think, and those that make you wonder.

Watch out for the fellow who talks about putting things in order! Putting things in order always means getting other people under your control.

I truly believe that [America loves] the people that don't play to the audience and are just themselves.

When thee builds a prison, thee had better build with the thought ever in thy mind that thee and thy children may occupy the cells.

Death is not a mystery; it is very simple and clear! It is the life which is the complex and the mystic one!

Making music is mostly spontaneously following sounds you find compelling that you chase and see where they're leading you.

I find myself using Spanish words much more now that I'm older, and I guess I have the authority to do it in public spaces in ways that I felt I couldn't when I was teaching here fifteen years ago.