Any good movie is filled with secrets.

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.

Yes. The whole point about laughter is it's like mercury: you can't catch it, you can't catch what motivates it - that's why it's funny.

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.

The unconscious is our best collaborator.

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 have never understood people dividing things into dramas and comedies.