Because many of the films I've made have had an intellectualedge, it's harder for me to lie. It's harder for me to go to peoplewith money and say I don't care about art, all I care about iscommerce; all I really want to do is make money.

That's just my disposition - to create a situation where you have to come up with something.

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.

I could be just a writer very easily. I am not a writer. I am a screenwriter, which is half a filmmaker... But it is not an art form, because screenplays are not works of art. They are invitations to others to collaborate on a work of art.

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.

Now I see it clearly. My whole life has pointed in one direction. I see that now. There never has been any choice for me.