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

You know, this is such a rich time that we've just been involved in, and there's really a job now for historians. Film is still very young. This is the first hundred years of filmmaking. So I think it's important that we have some sense of history and continuity. Especially in film.

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

It takes more than going down to the video store and renting "Easy Rider" to be a rebel.

The reality of things going on around me is more interesting than the fantasies of the world I work in.

I've been sober now for 18 years. With all the drugs, psychedelics and narcotics I did, I was [really] an alcoholic. Honestly, I only used to do cocaine so I could sober up and drink more. My last five years of drinking was a nightmare. I was drinking a half-gallon of rum with a fifth of rum on the side, in case I ran out, 28 beers a day, and three grams of cocaine just to keep me moving around. And I thought I was doing fine because I wasn't crawling around drunk on the floor.

To make a documentary is one thing, to make a feature film is quite another.