When I finally made it to the set, I spent a lot of time doing damage control on The Magic Christian.

I met The Beatles and Stones at the same time, because Michael Cooper was doing several of their album covers.

When Kubrick decided to go the black comedy route with his movie, he thought of me to give it that flavor.

The important thing in writing is the capacity to astonish. Not shock - shock is a worn-out word - but astonish.

I'm not interested in attacking, I'm interested in astonishing.

Someone wrote a piece about Henry Green in The Partisan Review that was so intriguing that I got one of his novels, Loving, I believe, which was the first that came to attention in the United States.

There is no power on earth that can loosen a man's grip on his own throat

In that sense, film is superior, but the difficulty is your lack of control as a writer.

You can't do the end of the world in a conventionally dramatic way or Boy Meets Girl way.

After Strangelove I also started work on an adaptation of The Collector.

Peter Beard is one of those people I've known a long time. We have an affinity. We share certain values.

All religions are man-made God has not yet revealed himself beyond doubt to anybody.

We are homesick most for the places we have never known.

I'll get to make a lot of money and do some bad sitcoms.

Mr. Gorbachev has apparently stumbled onto one of the best-kept secrets in recent Soviet history: Communism doesn't work.

Reading makes me happy.

Everyone knows rock n' roll attained perfection in 1974. It's a scientific fact.

How many people want to read about three disreputable pigs and a dopey wolf with a disposition towards house demolition?

When we have attained success, we see how inferior it is to the hope, yearning and enthusiasm with which we started forth in life's morning.

I have two or three cars that I like, but today, Ferrari would be the best car I have driven in terms of being an impressive car.

I often do very serious roles, but really I am a big clown.