I like L.A., but I think whats changed is that the kinds of films I do, the mid-range dramatic film, has become an endangered species.

A great number of the disappointments and mishaps of the troubled world are the direct result of literature and the allied arts. It is our belief that no human being who devotes his life and energy to the manufacture of fantasies can be anything but fundamentally inadequate.

To seduce a woman famous for strict morals, religious fervor and the happiness of her marriage: what could possibly be more prestigious?

You know very well that unless you're a scientist, it's much more important for a theory to be shapely, than for it to be true.

Often I think the novels I read won't make very good movies - I better not say which I'm looking at for potential films! - but it's nice to have an excuse to just sit and read for a whole day.

Masturbation is the thinking man's television.

I have always thought of sophistication as rather a feeble substitute for decadence.