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

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.

It's not a filmmaker's job to explain his technique but to tell his story the best way he can.

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

The unconscious is our best collaborator.

Will we allow the decline of our language-the language of Shakespeare, Shaw and Steinbeck? Will we abuse our precious gift of communication? Will we bite our mother tongue with the teeth of indifference, crushing the taste buds of clarity and, without prompt application of the antiseptic of education, causing the gangrene of strained metaphors? Stand up, America, and let me hear your answer: Ain't no way, dude!

Jewish introspection and Jewish humor is a way of surviving . . . if you're not handsome and you're not athletic and you're not rich, there's still one last hope with girls, which is being funny.