I may not be the strongest guy or the most well armed, but you can put me in a room with a pencil and a piece of paper and I can kill anybody.

I've always been able to survive by writing, though.

I've always had trouble with authority.

The people that really pass judgment on you really have nothing to do with what you do, usually.

You know, I find it very strange when movies that I made that were just excoriated - I mean that I was just vilified for - are now looked at as classics.

I became a loner. I became a mountain man. A lot of those things are very good qualities and they help you do your work, help you be singular and keep the artistic integrity of your work intact, but they don't make it very easy to live your life.

Writing requires a great deal of skill, just like painting does. People don't want to learn those skills.