For it is written that just as it is forbidden to partake of the forbidden, it is forbidden not to partake of the permitted.

I've always been fascinated by the picaresque.

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

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.

I've been alienating my public since I was 20 years old. When 'American Buffalo' came out on Broadway, people would storm out and say, 'How dare he use that kind of language!' Of course I'm alienating the public! That's what they pay me for.

We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie.

Let the cut tell the story. Otherwise you have not got dramatic action, you've got narration.