The cinema is truth 24 frames-per-second.

He who jumps into the void owes no explanation to those who stand and watch.

A story should have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order.

Cinema is the most beautiful fraud in the world.

Objects exist and if one pays more attention to them than to people, it is precisely because they exist more than the people. Dead objects are still alive. Living people are often already dead.

People like to say, 'What do you mean exactly?' I would answer, 'I mean, but not exactly.'

I don't think you should feel about a film. You should feel about a woman, not a movie. You can't kiss a movie.

Photography is truth...and cinema is truth 24 times a second.

To live in society today is like living in one enormous comic-strip.

"Away, away," says hate. "Closer, closer," says love.

Killing a man in defense of an idea is not defending an idea; it is killing a man.

But what is more to the point is my belief that the habit of writing thus for my own eye only is good practice. It loosens the ligaments. Never mind the misses and the stumbles.

Anytime I'm not reading my Bible or praying, I feel like I'm wasting my time. [Mark's brother-in-law, Matt ________, speaking]

I don't beg for those things which can be earned.

Read to lead in order to succeed.

It doesn't have to glitter to be gold.

Geese are friends to no one, they bad mouth everybody and everything. But they are companionable once you get used to their ingratitude and false accusations.

If I was to go to sleep before midnight, I would feel weird about myself, like I wasted a day. My most productive hours are between midnight and five.

..we wear the mask that grins and lies, it hides our cheeks and shades our eyes- this debt we pay to human guile; with torn and bleeding hearts we smile.

I had worked in fiction a lot before I started making documentaries, but when I was around 32 or 33-years-old I suddenly got so fed up with the world of fiction, which is so money-centered.

Those who intend on becoming great should love neither themselves or their own things, but only what is just, whether it happens to be done by themselves or others.