It seems likely that many of the young who don't wait for others to call them artists, but simply announce that they are, don't have the patience to make art.

Movies, far more than the traditional arts, are tied to big money. Without a few independent critics, there's nothing between the public and the advertisers.

He [Bernardo Bertolucci] has the kind of talent that breaks one's heart: where can it go, what will happen to it? In this country we encourage 'creativity' among the mediocre, but real bursting creativity appalls us. We put it down as undisciplined, as somehow 'too much.' Well, Before the Revolution is too much and that is what is great about it. Art doesn't come in measured quantities: it's got to be too much or it's not enough.

I’m frequently asked why I don’t write my memoirs. I think I have.

If you use Hollywood as the test tissue for mankind, what could the prognosis be?

I live in a rather special world. I only know one person who voted for Nixon. Where they are I don't know. They're outside my ken. But sometimes when I'm in a theater I can feel them.

Art doesn't come in measured quantities: it's got to be too much or it's not enough.