I realized early on that success was tied to not giving up.

Wood burns faster when you have to cut and chop it yourself.

I had the idea that the film would be much better served by a Branch Rickey lookalike than a Harrison Ford lookalike. I didn't want the audience to go into the film thinking that they knew me from some previous experience in a movie.

I was one of the few people who thought Star Wars was going to work, and I hadn't even seen any special effects.

With the CGI, suddenly there's a thousand enemies instead of six - the army goes off into the horizon. You don't need that. The audience loses its relationship with the threat on the screen. That's something that's consistently happening and it makes these movies like video games and that's a soulless enterprise. It's all kinetics without emotion.

Starring in a science-fiction film doesn't mean you have to act science fiction.

You know you're getting old when all the names in your black book have M. D. after them.