The great mystery of adaptation is that true fidelity can only be achieved through lavish promiscuity.

The poetry from the eighteenth century was prose; the prose from the seventeenth century was poetry.

. . . it is true that language and forward movement in the cinema are jolly hard to reconcile. It's a very, very, difficult thing to do. . . . There is still a place in the cinema for movies that are driven by the human face, and not by explosions and cars and guns and action sequences . . . there's such a thing as action and speed within thought rather than within a ceaseless milkshake of images.

Thought is the wind and knowledge the sail.

Style is the art of getting yourself out of the way, not putting yourself in it.

Never take advice from anyone with no investment in the outcome.

Poetry is the key to the hieroglyphics of nature.