William Castle and Alfred Hitchcock were the first director-personalities. Before then, nobody in America knew what a director was.

When I started making movies about weird people, I knew they were weird, I was infected with irony, and I wanted New York to notice.

Not wanting anyone to pop my bubble by speaking to me, I immediately began reading Lesbian Nuns, and that did the trick. No one attempted small talk.

Nothing is more impotent than an unread library.

My photographs are not really about photography. They are about editing. I use photography but they are all taken from the TV screen. Anybody can do that, but it's the order I put the pictures in to try to create a new kind of movie, something that you can put on your wall.

I learned that people like my work because I praise things that others don't like.

Humor is how you change people's opinions, and if you can make someone laugh, they'll listen, even if they hate you.