I was looking for people who didn't have any preconceptions about films, what I call the "post-rules" generation.

The secret of the creative life is how to feel at ease with your own embarrassment. We're all in the dirty laundry business and we're being paid to take risks and look silly. Race car drivers get paid to risk their lives in a more concrete way; we get paid to risk our lives in an emotional way.

Nobody has shot a strip club in black and white in a long time.

Ultimately, it's an illusion that you can understand yourself.

'Taxi Driver' wasn't autobiographical in terms of the actual events, but I did draw on my own mental state.

The clock is impotent; mechanical time does not affect those living in an eternal present.

You think it's a blessing to know what God wants? I'll tell you what he wants. He wants to push me over! Can't he see what's inside of me? All my sins.