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.

Egotism is not a good quality. It's not something to be admired or even tolerated. It wouldn't be tolerated in a field commander and it shouldn't be tolerated in a movie director.

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

I also thought of myself as the Sonny Barger of the film industry.

I suppose when I started out I would have liked to have been the darling of critics or something, but everybody wants to be loved and admired.

I've always had trouble with authority.

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.