I never, ever want to apologize for a film. If it's bad I'll say it's my fault. And that's what I can say so far in all the films that I've done, that if you don't like it, it's entirely my fault.

You need, as a historian, essential triangulation from your subject and the only way you get that triangulation is through time.

Do not lose your enthusiasm. In its Greek etymology, the word enthusiasm means, "God in us."

In a sense I've made the same film over and over again. In all of them I've asked, 'Who are we as Americans?

Jazz is a very accurate, curiously accurate accompaniment to 20th century America.

The flame is not out, but it is flickering.

I think we too often make choices based on the safety of cynicism, and what we're lead to is a life not fully lived. Cynicism is fear, and it's worse than fear - it's an active disengagement.