Making a film means, first of all, to tell a story. That story can be an improbable one, but it should never be banal. It must be dramatic and human. What is drama, after all, but life with the dull bits cut out?

Film your murders like love scenes, and film your love scenes like murders.

All love scenes started on the set are continued in the dressing room.

Fear isn't so difficult to understand. After all, weren't we all frightened as children? Nothing has changed since Little Red Riding Hood faced the big bad wolf. What frightens us today is exactly the same sort of thing that frightened us yesterday. It's just a different wolf. This fright complex is rooted in every individual.

I have a perfect cure for a sore throat: cut it.

I can't read fiction without visualizing every scene. The result is it becomes a series of pictures rather than a book.

When you can look forward, and the road is clear ahead, and now you are going to create something - that's as happy as I'd want to be.