You mustn't regret decisions that you make. Because the decisions are made out of your gut in a way and you have to stick with them.

Editing feels almost like sculpting or a form of continuing the writing process.

Every single art form is involved in film, in a way.

I think it's a terrible shame that politics has become show business.

I mean, certainly writing, painting, photography, dance, architecture, there is an aspect of almost every art form that is useful and that merges into film in some way.

I didn't grow up thinking of movies as film, or art, but as movies, something to do on a Saturday afternoon.

But, I've made films in Japan, in Yugoslavia, all over Europe, all over the United States, Mexico, but not Hollywood.

I have one life. I am a certain age. I'm married to one person. I have a certain number of children. I won't have another life other than that, but I do have many lives through the films.

I mean, the truth of the matter is, I like the failures as much as I like the successes, it's only the world that doesn't like the failures.

Making films is much more difficult than people imagine, and so the experience of actually directing them is not one I've ever relished.

One wants to be able to experience being other people, remaking a reality, remaking a life, remaking a certain world.

Why are you going to choose failure when success is an option?

Million dollar ideas are a dime a dozen. The determination to see the idea through is what's priceless.

Falling in love doesn't always lead to heartbreak, honey. With the right man, it can be a one-way ticket to paradise.

Americans in general have a lot of compassion, we just don't always have the same view of how that compassion is implemented.

Ninety countries still hold on to capital punishment, and, sadly, one of these is the United States, the only Western industrialized country to practice this barbaric punishment.

Courage and folly are cousins, or so I’ve heard.

The man who becomes a critic by trade ceases, in reality, to be one at all.

[Screenwriting] is no more complicated than old French torture chambers, I think. It's about as simple as that.

Touch is the landscape / of what is possible.

You know, real life doesn't just suddenly resolve itself. You have to keep working at it.