You can speak well if your tongue can deliver the message of your heart.

Anybody can direct a picture once they know the fundamentals. Directing is not a mystery, it's not an art. The main thing about directing is: photograph the people's eyes.

I am... a mushroom; On whom the dew of heaven drops now and then.

I didn't show up at the ceremony to collect any of my first three Oscars. Once I went fishing, another time there was a war on, and on another occasion, I remember, I was suddenly taken drunk.

I like, as a director and a spectator, simple, direct, frank films. Nothing disgusts me more than snobbism, mannerism, technical gratuity... and, most of all, intellectualism.

When in doubt, make a western.

Who better than an Irishman can understand the Indians, while still being stirred by tales of the US cavalry?

Love is the tyrant of the heart; it darkens Reason, confounds discretion; deaf to Counsel It runs a headlong course to desperate madness.

To be quite blunt, I make pictures for money, to pay the rent.There are some great artists in the business. I am not one of them.

Tell us, pray, what devil This melancholy is, which can transform Men into monsters.

Let them fear bondage who are slaves to fear; the sweetest freedom is an honest heart.

A peaceful mind is the source of all joy and all happiness.

Begin to read and mediate on the word of God.

Rosalind exploded with a shriek worthy of a tea-kettle.

I'll be damned if I apologize for the choices I've made. They were hard decisions, but I had good reasons for making them.

I don't want to listen to everybody's problems all the time. And I doubt anybody wants to listen to mine.

A zeal for the defence of their country led these heroes to the scene of action, though with a few men to attack a powerful army of experienced warriors.

This is a delicious evening, when the whole body is one sense, and imbibes delight through every pore.

History is a tragedy, not a morality tale.

I think it is the fact that birds are two-legged, like us, which gives them something of our balance and gesture and makes them nearer to us.

I, the soul called Wanderer, love you, human Ian. And that will never change, no matter what I might become.