Make the audience wonder what's going on by putting them in the same position as the protagonist.

Everybody makes their own fun. If you don't make it yourself, it isn't fun. It's entertainment.

Film is a collaborative business: bend over.

The great movie can be as free of being a record of the progress of the protagonist as is a dream.

The surprise is half the battle. Many things are half the battle, losing is half the battle. Let's think about what's the whole battle.

Every scene should be able to answer three questions: "Who wants what from whom? What happens if they don't get it? Why now?"

Having spent too many years in show business, the one thing I see that succeeds is persistence. It's the person who just ain't gonna go home. I decided early on that I wasn't going to go home. This is what I'll be doing until they put me in jail or in a coffin.