I've walked out of films. But for every film I've ever walked out of, I've probably walked out of 500 plays.

When I was young I used to sit in the cinema thinking wouldn't it be great if you could have a film in which the characters were like real people instead of being like actors.

I try and create for the audience something that relates to real-life experience.

Given the choice of Hollywood or poking steel pins in my eyes, I'd prefer steel pins.

I hope I make films where you walk away . . . with work to do, arguments to have, things to worry about, things to care about. In that sense, I would regard what I do as political.

My work is about life as you and I experience it. You're either lucky or you're not lucky; either your relationship works or it doesn't.

But films should be voyeuristic. What else is a film if you’re not snooping into somebody else’s lives?

There's a constant drip and trickle of life that goes into one's awareness really and consciousness of things.

I discover what my film is by embarking on the journey of making it.

The way an actor is trained doesn't ultimately have much bearing on my work. I'm interested in the actor as artist.

It's an unhealthy habit to say that life is what you make of it, and if you want to be happy, then you can be happy. That's just rubbish, basically.

We learn more when we hate than when we love, because hate is eternally awake, but love is everlastingly asleep.

The Internet is like alcohol in some sense. It accentuates what you would do anyway. If you want to be a loner, you can be more alone. If you want to connect, it makes it easier to connect.

People fall forward to success.

You could be as vulgar as you want, as long as three tiny spots were covered.

A dress made right should allow one to walk, to dance, even to ride horseback.

Every American carries in his bloodstream the heritage of the malcontent and the dreamer.

Suffering has roused them from the sleep of gentle life, and every day fills them with a terrible intoxication. They are now something more than themselves; those we loved were merely happy shadows.

Writing is a political instrument.

We aren't comfortable. We are not satisfied. We have to stay even-keeled.

It is safer and wiser to cure unhealthy rivalry than to suppress it.