The bottom line is to be in control of your own destiny.

I think the great power of Bette Davis was she always knew who she was. She had an obligation to herself and her audience. When you think of what she was compelled to do, the power she put on the screen, the fact that she took upon herself a much greater task.

Filmmaking, like sex, isn't a polite enterprise. It involves a lot of mess and the bottom line is, if somebody ain't screaming, you're not doing your job.

The lifeblood of my career has been independent film.

The press is like a big bass, you just stick a hook in their mouth and they'll take it.

Look, just go sit at the card table with the rest of the kids and let the adults run the country.

My attitude about Hollywood is that I wouldn't walk across the street to pull one of those executives out of the snow if he was bleeding to death. Not unless I was paid for it. None of them ever did me any favors.