I never overestimate the audience, nor do I underestimate them. I just have a very rational idea as to who we’re dealing with, and that we’re not making a picture for Harvard Law School, we’re making a picture for middle-class people, the people that you see on the subway, or the people that you see in a restaurant. Just normal people.

On Ernst Lubitsch: He could do more with a closed door than other directors could do with an open fly.

Shoot a few scenes out of focus. I want to win the foreign film award.

Develop a clean line of action for your leading character

Ah, Marilyn, Hollywood's Joan of Arc, our Ultimate Sacrificial Lamb. Well, let me tell you, she was mean, terribly mean. The meanest woman I have ever known in this town. I am appalled by this Marilyn Monroe cult. Perhaps it's getting to be an act of courage to say the truth about her. Well, let me be courageous. I have never met anyone as utterly mean as Marilyn Monroe. Nor as utterly fabulous on the screen, and that includes Garbo.

My Aunt Minnie would always be punctual and never hold up production, but who would pay to see my Aunt Minnie?

The best director is the one you don't see.