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.

We are on the track of something absolutely mediocre.

I have ten commandments. The first nine are, thou shalt not bore. The tenth is, thou shalt have right of final cut.

It was a hot afternoon and I can still remember the smell of honeysuckle all along the street. How can I have known that murder can sometimes smell like honeysuckle?

What critics call dirty in our pictures, they call lusty in foreign films.

An actor entering through the door, you've got nothing. But if he enters through the window, you've got a situation.