Don't be too clever for an audience. Make it obvious. Make the subtleties obvious also.

The Austrians are brilliant people. They made the world believe that Hitler was a German and Beethoven an Austrian.

A director must be a policeman, a midwife, a psychoanalyst, a sycophant and a bastard.

I had one life. And what did I do? Wasted it in some palooka preliminaries in Spain, just before Hitler and Chamberlain warm up for the main event.

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.

Hollywood didn't kill Marilyn Monroe, it's the Marilyn Monroes who are killing Hollywood.

The ultimate trick is to convince, persuade. Every single person out there is an idiot, but collectively they're a genius.