I think I've made some pretty decent films in the '80s and '90s.

Casting is 65 percent of directing.

There are two things I will never do in my life. I will never climb Mount Everest, and I will never work with Val Kilmer again. There isn't enough money in the world.

The accolades usually come when you're dead or too old to get a job

I have gotten to a point in my life where I don't want to have dinner with someone I don't like.

And in Hollywood, you know, everyone is an expert. Most of them are expert editors. They can't direct, they can't write, they can't act, but, by God, they all think they can edit.

I've found that the more experts you have on a movie, the less control the director has.

The importance of the assistant director cannot be overemphasized.

I look at actors very closely. It's not an accident when the actors excel.

First, speaking for myself, I don't want to ever be in a position where I'm telling other directors how to make movies, because I don't think it's any of my business.

The first assistant director is just so important that the choice of that person is critical to the movie.

Faith is the most unexercised muscle known to man.

What was youth at best? A green, an unripe time, a time of shallow moods, and sickly thoughts.

Trouble is the place where you find yourself when your judgment malfunction

...God sometimes sends flowers -but I like it best when he darkens the sky and lights up an infinitude of worlds...

My family are police officers, detectives. My brother Mitch is FBI. Mitch is like that - a stern enforcer.

I don't work on my Sabbath. I write five-and-a-half or six days a week.

I think it's important to bring somebody from outside the system, the judicial system, somebody that hasn't been on the bench and, therefore, there's not a lot of opinions for people to look at.

When you're a guest star on TV shows - particularly in the 1960s - you're always the villain.

The secret of happiness is freedom and the secret of freedom is courage.