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.

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.

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

I am fascinated with times past.

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

The amazing thing about any movie is not whether it's good, but that it got made at all.

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