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.

In attempting to explain F For Fake's state-side failure, it has occurred to me that perhaps the subject matter was at least partially to blame, and that this country is so blissfully enslaved by the notion of the special sanctity of the expert that an overtly anti-expert film was bound to go too much against the national grain.

I have an unfortunate personality.

Every true artist must, in his own way, be a magician, a charlatan.

My definition of success is not having things thrown at me!

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

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