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

After so many drive-in waitresses becoming movie stars, there has been this real drought, when along come class; somebody who actually went to school, can spell, maybe even plays the piano. She may be a wispy, thin little thing, but when you see that girl, you know you're really in the presence of something. In that league there's only ever been Garbo, and the other Hepburn, and maybe Bergman. It's a rare quality, but boy, do you know when you've found it.

Now, what is it which makes a scene interesting? If you see a man coming through a doorway, it means nothing. If you see him coming through a window - that is at once interesting.

One's too many and a hundred's not enough.

An audience is never wrong. An individual member of it may be an imbecile, but a thousand imbeciles together in the dark - that is critical genius.

I met a lot of hard-boiled eggs in my life, but you - you're twenty minutes.

I'm delighted with it, because it used to be that films were the lowest form of art. Now we've got something to look down on.