I made this movie for $40,000, which was this little black-and-white horror film called Dementia 13, which we made in about nine days.

All of a sudden, there are great Japanese films, or great Italian films, or great Australian films. It's usually because there are a number of people that cross-pollinated each other.

Anything you build on a large scale or with intense passion invites chaos.

I associate my motion picture career more with being unhappy and scared, or being under the gun, than with anything pleasant.

There's nothing creative about living within your means.

I've been offered lots of movies. There's always some actor who's doing a project and would like to have me do it. But you look at the project and think, 'Gee, there are a lot of good directors who could do that.' I'd like to do something only I can do.

I have always credited the writer of the original material above the title: Mario Puzo's The Godfather, Bram Stoker's Dracula, or John Grisham's The Rainmaker. I felt that I didn't have the right to Francis Coppola's anything unless I had written the story and the screenplay.