"Based on a true story" is a come-on, the aesthetic equivalent of "no loan request refused." For, at best, the creator has fashioned a film based on his understanding of, interpretation of, and reduction of the report of an actual occurrence.

The audience will teach you how to act and the audience will teach you how to write and to direct. The classroom will teach you how to obey, and obedience in the theatre will get you nowhere. It’s a soothing falsity.

Policemen so cherish their status as keepers of the peace and protectors of the public that they have occasionally been known to beat to death those citizens or groups who question that status.

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

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

My idea of perfect happiness is a healthy family, peace between nations, and all the critics die.

Get into the scene late; get out of the scene early.