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.

Each multiplex has screens allocated to each studio. The screens need filling. Studios have to create product to fill their screen, and the amount of good product is limited.

I have made an art form of the interview. The French are the best interviewers, despite their addiction to the triad, like all Cartesians.

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

A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet.

We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we're not alone.

I prefer the old masters, by which I mean John Ford, John Ford, and John Ford.