I stopped directing in 2001 for - oh, damn - four or five years, until I did the TV series 'Masters Of Horror.' I had been working steadily as a director since 1970. That's a long time. I was burned out.

When you have no money, you need invention.

I don't want to be a part of the demographics. I want to be an individual. I wear each of my films as a badge of pride. That's why I cherish all my bad reviews. If the critics start liking my movies, then I'm in deep trouble.

From early on, when synthesizers were first introduced into music, I liked the idea that you could get a big sound with them - electronic, but like an orchestra. And I could play it all myself. That was exciting.

The strongest human emotion is fear. It's the essence of any good thriller that, for a little while, you believe in the boogeyman.

Horror is a reaction; it's not a genre. Somebody's life would have to be in danger for it [story] to be a horror story.

Horror found me. I got into the movie business to make westerns.