Movies are our cheap and easy expression, the sullen art of displaced persons.

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

Being creative is having something to sell, or knowing how to sell something, or having sold something. It has taken over what we used to mean by being "wised up" knowing the tricks, the shortcuts.

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

In the arts, the critic is the only independent source of information. The rest is advertising.

Really, it's not people who don't understand us who drive us nuts—it's when those who shouldn't, do.

Imagining [The Wizard of Oz] without Judy Garland is a bit like dancing on wet cement: you can do it, but why would you want to?