In my room as a kid... I'd play a fighter and get knocked to the floor and come back to win.

I feel cheated never being able to know what it's like to get pregnant, carry a child and breast-feed.

Myth is supposed to bring us together, but fantasy alienates us.

To have a successful marriage, a man must, on a fundamental level be scared shitless of his wife.

Well, 45-odd years of doing it, so we all pile up the things we like about directors and the things we don't like about directors. And sometimes they're very similar.

A good review from the critics is just another stay of execution.

So, most of it was done over the phone. But one of the first things I did as a director, because it's one of the first things you should do, even though most don't, is to ask good actors who they think is right for the part. They know better than anybody. But without missing a beat Maggie said Pauline Collins. I didn't know Pauline because I hadn't seen Shirley Valentine, but then I saw this thing that she did with Woody Allen [You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger], in which she was wonderful as a psychic, and I said to her on the phone: "The dialogue seemed improvised."