Every reiteration of the idea that nothing matters debases the human spirit.

The purpose of technique is to free the unconscious. If you follow the rules ploddingly, they will allow your unconscious to be free.

Films have degenerated to their original operation as carnival amusement - they offer not drama but thrills.

In a world we find terrifying, we ratify that which doesn't threaten us.

War is tragedy. The great war stories are tragedies. It's the failure of diplomacy. 'War and Peace,' 'A Farewell to Arms,' 'For Whom the Bell Tolls.' Those are some of the greatest tragedies.

The true writer must write not the acceptable but the true.

Society functions in a way much more interesting than the multiple-choice pattern we have been rewarded for succeeding at in school. Success in life comes not from the ability to choose between the four presented answers, but from the rather more difficult and painfully acquired ability to formulate the questions.