My idea at this time, which was slowly developing, was to create a comedie humaine with little people, average people - samples from every period in American life.

I was making films about American society, and it is true that I never felt at home there, except perhaps when my wife and I lived on a farm in the San Fernando Valley. But I always wanted my characters to be more than cyphers for the failings of their world. And I never had to look too hard to find a part of myself in them

A director in Hollywood in my time couldn't do what he wanted to do.

Intellectualism came very late to America. That's why Americans are so proud of it. I found very few real intellectuals in America. But there are so many pseudo-intellectuals.

I never regarded my pictures as very much to be proud of, except in this, the craft, the style.

For a house, somewhere near Los Angeles I found an old church. Very old, no longer used. So we moved the church to the land, and I took off the steeple, and I got my hands dirty.

If I couldn't read, I couldn't live.