I'd like to think that my films are personal enough to exist without hearkening back to their respective novels.

Boy, I'd hate to shoot on tape or disc or whatever the hell they're talking about. I love film.

Stanley Kubrick was a big inspiration. People accuse me of never using my own material. But when did Kubrick? You look at his films and they are completely unique... completely separate entities.

The Exorcist' is amazing because it recognizes that silences can be as powerful as sound effects.

If you're going to succeed, you've got to be like one of those punch-drunk fighters in the old Warner Bros. boxing pictures: too stupid to fall down, you just keep slugging and stay on your feet.

To me, length is an artificial and arbitrary factor in a film.

Some of us have great original ideas and some of us depend on adaptations.