If I ever own a restaurant, I will never allow the waiters to ask if the diners like their dishes. Particularly when they're talking.

By nature, I am an experimentalist. I don't believe much in accomplishment.

See, I believe that it is not true that different races and nations are alike. I'm profoundly convinced that that's a total lie. I think people are different. Sardinians, for example, have stubby little fingers. Bosnians have short necks.

The most personal thing I've put in [Touch of Evil] is my hatred of the abuse of police power. It's better to see a murderer go free than for a policeman to abuse his power.

I'm not a walking extra in a Chekhov play; I'm no Slavic gloom or Irish gloom. I mark only the happy hours, like the sundial, because otherwise I would have gone nuts.

Look at the real prodigies, and I look like nothing compared to them.

I started at the top and worked my way down.