You walk through a series of arches, so to speak, and then, presently, at the end of a corridor, a door opens and you see backward through time, and you feel the flow of time, and realize you are only part of a great nameless procession.

I prefer to think that God is not dead, just drunk.

Most people never have to face the fact that at the right time and the right place they're capable of anything.

Hollywood has always been a cage...a cage to catch our dreams

Critics have never been able to discover a unifying theme in my films. For thatmatter, neither have I.

Marilyn was one step from oblivion when I directed her in The Asphalt Jungle. I remember she impressed me more off the screen than on…there was something touching and appealing about her.

The directing of a picture involves coming out of your individual loneliness and taking a controlling part in putting together a small world.