I was a pretty shy, lonely kid. I blossomed about age 17, when I went to college.

They needed someone to write a script of The Great Gatsby very quickly for the movie they were making. I took this job so I'd be sure to have some dough to support my family.

I always found the film world unpleasant. It's all about the schedule, and never really flew for me.

I just finished a film a few days ago, and I came home and said I learned so much today. So if I can come home from working on a little film after doing it for 45 years and say, "I learned so much today," that shows something about the cinema. Because the cinema is very young. It's only 100 years old.

The very earliest people who made film were magicians.

I'm no longer dependent on the movie business to make a living. So if I want to make movies as other old guys would play golf, I can.

I was never sloppy with other people's money. Only my own. Because I figure, well, you can be.