Race hate isn't human nature; race hate is the abandonment of human nature.

Husbands should revolt from time to time. Even the best circus-number becomes boring if the beast is too tame.

Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what's for lunch.

It would be so much better if the critics would come, not on first nights, but on last nights, when they could exercise their undoubted flair for funeral orations.

The ideal American type is perfectly expressed by the Protestant, individualist, anti-conformist, and this is the type that is in the process of disappearing. In reality there are few left.

I have wasted the greater part of my life looking for money and trying to get along, trying to make my work from this terribly expensive paintbox, which is a movie. And I've spent too much energy on things that have nothing to do with making a movie. It's about two percent moviemaking and ninety-eight percent hustling. It's no way to spend a life.

I'm a lurid character!