When I started making films, I wanted to make Frank Capra pictures. But I`ve never been able to make anything but these crazy, tough pictures. You are what you are.

There's a difference between ad-libbing and improvising. And there's a difference between not knowing what to do and just saying something. Or making choices as an actor. As a writer also, as a person who's making a film, as a cameraman, everything is a choice. And it seems to me I don't really have to direct anyone or write down that somebody's getting drunk; all I have to do is say that there's a bottle there and put a bottle there and then they're going to get drunk.

You can fail in films because you don't have the talent, or you have too much humility, or you lack ferociousness. I'm a gangster. If I want something, I'll grab it.

I’m very worried about the depiction of women on the screen. It’s gotten worse than ever and it’s related to their being either high- or low-class concubines, and the only question is when or where they will go to bed, with whom, and how many. There’s nothing to do with the dreams of women, or of woman as the dream, nothing to do with the quirky part of her, the wonder of her.

People who are making films today are too concerned with mechanics - technical things instead of feeling.

No matter how old you get, if you can keep the desire to be creative, you're keeping the man-child alive.

You can defeat fear through humor, through pain, through honesty, bravery, intuition, and through love in the truest sense.