In this era of affluence and of permissiveness, we have, in all but cultural areas, bred a nation of overprivileged youngsters, saturated with vitamins, television and plastic toys.

To be a critic, you have to have maybe three percent education, five percent intelligence, two percent style, and 90 percent gall and egomania in equal parts.

All you'll get from strangers is surface pleasantry or indifference. Only someone who loves you will criticize you.

The secret to success is written on the doors of this auditorium. One side says 'Push,' the other side says 'Pull.

Happiness is too many things these days for anyone to wish it on anyone lightly. So let's just wish each other a bileless New Year and leave it at that.

Movies suddenly became film and cinema an art form and terribly chic.

The one and original lovable monster is lost amid all the hydraulic manipulations in what now emerges as the story of a dumb blonde who falls for a huge plastic finger.

It is essential for the good of criticism that both the critic and the public face the fact that a review is not the voice of God.

The critics who love are the severe ones . . . we know our relationship must be based on honesty.

As the earth dies your spirit will bloom

What is the matter with universities is that the students are school children, whereas it is of the very essence of university education that they should be adults.

The star thing I can live with. The music I can't live without. And that's how it lays out for me, you know. I got as big an ego and enjoy the attention.

That grand drama in a hundred acts, which is reserved for the next two centuries of Europe-the most terrible, most questionable and perhaps also the most hopeful of all dramas.

I love all the different ways that New Yorkers show their individuality through what they choose to wear.

Mountain-rose petals Falling, falling, falling now... Waterfall music

In America, our origins matter less than our destination, and that is what democracy is all about.

To return to my own trees, I went among them often, acknowledging their presence with a touch of my hand against their trunks.

Friendship is constant in all other things, save in the office and affairs of love.

Directing is the ultimate way to bring together all the art forms I've been involved with over the years.