I guarantee you that two directors that are any good can take the same story, change the name of the characters, change the name of the town, and make an entirely different picture.

A good movie is three good scenes and no bad scenes.

I get a little sick of these New Yorkers who want me to make some psychic thing, like 'The Left-Handed Gun.' They don't know anything about Western history.

When you've got some talent, your job is to use it.

I find that when you open on a group of people sitting down and talking, the scene sits down with them. The best antidote for that is an entrance. Begin the scene with someone entering, and somehow it’s more interesting.

I'm a storyteller - that's the chief function of a director. And they're moving pictures, let's make 'em move!

Fortune favors the prepared.