Movies are so rarely great art that if we cannot appreciate great trash we have very little reason to be interested in them.

All our advertising is propaganda, of course, but it has become so much a part of our life, is so pervasive, that we just don't know what it is propaganda for.

if you think it so easy to be a critic, so difficult to be a poet or a painter or film experimenter, may I suggest you try both? You may discover why there are so few critics, so many poets.

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.

The worst thing about movie-making is that it's like life: nobody can go back to correct the mistakes.

Good movies make you care, make you believe in possibilities again. If somewhere in the Hollywood-entertainment world someone has managed to break through with something that speaks to you, then it isn’t all corruption. The movie doesn’t have to be great; it can be stupid and empty and you can still have the joy of a good performance, or the joy in just a good line. An actor’s scowl, a small subversive gesture, a dirty remark that someone tosses off with a mock-innocent face, and the world makes a little bit of sense.