Nerves provide me with energy... It's when I don't have them, when I feel at ease, that's when I get worried.

I love to take actors to a place where they open a vein. That’s the job. The key is that I make it safe for them to open the vein.

I came to love silence, because it's so rare, and it's now my favorite aural condition.

Directing is mystifying. It's a long, long, skid on an icy road, and you do the best you can trying to stay on the road... If you're still here when you come out of the spin, it's a relief. But you've got to have the terror if you're going to do anything worthwhile.

In making movies, time is so short-because it is so expensive-that we tend to neglect the place from which the best ideas come, namely that part of ourselves that dreams. The unconscious is our best collaborator.

There's nothing in the American dream about character. It's a serious flaw.

The unconscious is our best collaborator.