Photography and painting, all of that fed into my directing eventually.

Just because it happened to you, doesn't mean it's interesting.

You're like a turd that won't flush.

In Method acting, you can't have preconceived ideas. You have to live in the moment. You have to keep yourself open.

Easy Rider' was never a motorcycle movie to me. A lot of it was about politically what was going on in the country.

When we're out of the eighties, the nineties are gonna make the sixties look like the fifties!

I made a picture called Super Mario Bros., and my six-year-old son at the time - he's now 18 - he said, 'Dad I think you're probably a pretty good actor, but why did you play that terrible guy King Koopa in Super Mario Bros?' And I said, 'Well Henry, I did that so you could have shoes,' and he said, 'Dad, I don't need shoes that badly.'