I've had the greatest respect for my work in this country by Americans. Critics have no brains.

The young man who's had the Guggenheim fortune behind him all his life - he can hire all the authorities on the subject to teach him how to do a monologue, but he's never going to have the right stuff to pull it off. If he doesn't walk out onstage needing to walk out there, he doesn't have a dream of doing well.

Make film, shoot film, run film. Do something. Make film. Shoot anything.

I am probably the most selfish man you will ever meet in your life. No one gets the satisfaction or the joy that I get out of seeing kids realize there is hope.

Every man's dream is to be able to sink into the arms of a woman without also falling into her hands.

(The Nutty Professor) was a labor of love. It was a total film. It was the most productive, creative work of my life.

People think I'm against critics because they are negative to my work. That's not what bothers me. What bothers me is they didn't see the work. I have seen critics print stuff about stuff I cut out of the film before we ran it. So don't tell me about critics.