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

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.

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

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.

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

Because of this, originality consists in returning to the origin.

Every marriage is a battle between two families struggling to reproduce themselves.

Benevolent patriarchy is still patriarchy.

Life is not entertainment. Life is not distraction.

In my whole career, I've never really gotten hurt. The only ones that really hurt me were my wives.

I think if people read more, that is a better world.

Oh do not die, for I shall hate All women so, when thou art gone.

From the summer of my twelfth year I carry a series of images more vivid and lasting than any others of my boyhood and indelible beyond all attempts the years make to erase or fade them.

In college, you learn how to learn. Four years is not too much time to spend at that.

Throughout history, every great warrior-the Greeks, the Samurais, the American Indians, the Mongolians, you name it-had long hair and would dress it before battle.