I grew up in a tough neighborhood and we used to say you can get further with a kind word and a gun than just a kind word.

I don't have any experience with film schools. I suspect that they're useless, because I've had experience with drama schools, and have found them to be useless.

I took the liberal view for many decades, but I believe I have changed my mind.

The dream and the film are the juxtaposition of images in order to answer a question.

Anyone can write five people trapped in a snowstorm. The question is how you get them into the snowstorm. It's hard to write a good play because it's hard to structure a plot. If you can think of it off the top of your head, so can the audience. To think of a plot that is, as Aristotle says, surprising and yet inevitable, is a lot, lot, lot of work.

The work of the director is the work of constructing the shot list from the script.

The essence of jiu-jitsu is philosophy.