I was raised a Catholic and when you're raised a Catholic they don't teach you to think for yourself. You're taught not to think too deeply about things.

I come from a world where you get the film done, that's a success.

Most filmmaking is about shaking hands and just starting.

That's the thing about making a movie: You never finish editing. They just take it away from you.

My life is proof that I don't need you to do what I do. If there's no one to see it, I'll watch it.

I live with a bunch of yuppies and models.

As barbaric is we are, it's a miracle we haven't blown ourselves off the face of the earth so far.

Mulberry Street was the beating heart of the Italian-American experience, but you don't find those gangsters now. I live with a bunch of yuppies and models.

It's funny, the hardest thing to do is to make something look like it's fast, loose and improvised, and get somebody to laugh.

I direct, and I make movies I can't finance. I can't raise money. I can't sell anything. I make things.

I grew up in the Bronx. I'm into rap music.

In fact, the idea of a God who is both all-powerful and all good is a logical impossibility.

And I reckon them that are good must suffer for it the same as them that are bad.

A body seriously out of equilibrium, either with itself or with its environment, perishes outright. Not so a mind. Madness and suffering can set themselves no limit.

After I got over the terrible pain of having something of mine taken from me, I began to think how bad everybody else must be feeling. It wasn't a nice time.

Retirement requires the invention of a new hedonism, not a return to the hedonism of youth

Be an enzyme - a catalyst for change. As a slogan, I don't know if that's ever going to be right up there with Ich Bin Ein Berliner, or “I Have A Dream,” but there's a lot of truth to it.

I steal from every movie ever made.

I was raised on the values of speaking up and making a positive difference in a very political family that believed in the importance of public service.

I always like to think of the audience when I am directing. Because I am the audience.

Getting a project started is like moving a ship. It takes a lot of energy to build up momentum.