The best thing commercially, which is the worst artistically, by and large, is the most successful.

There are a thousand ways of playing a good classic. If it were effective, I would play Hamlet on a trapeze.

I've never understood the cult of Hitchcock. Particularly the late American movies... Egotism and laziness. And they're all lit like television shows.

A director is someone who presides over a series of accidents.

I love informality. I hate dressing up. I hate to be conventional - and I hate every kind of snob.

I'm never certain of a performance - my own or the other actors' - or the script or anything... But to me it seems there's only one place in the world the camera can be, and the decision usually comes immediately.

The enemy of society is middle class and the enemy of life is middle age.