All the theories that acting is reacting to imaginary circumstances as though they are real, and directing is turning psychology into behavior, those are all stabs at something that can't be taught. All the great actors can't talk about what they do, and they don't want to begin to talk about it. They just do it.

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

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.

The only safe thing in filmmaking is to take a chance.

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

That seems to me the greatest American danger we're all in, that we'll bargain away the experience of being alive for the appearance of it.

The unconscious is our best collaborator.