There are those who think that Zeffirelli's Hamlet is the way to treat Shakespeare. I think that cinema can handle much more. We somehow expect cinema to provide us with meaning, to console us. But that's not the purpose of art.

Life is full of a thousand red herrings, and it takes the history of a civilisation to work out which are the red herrings and which aren't.

The game Flights of Fancy or Reverse Strip Jump is played from as high a jumping-point as a competitor will dare. After each successful jump, the competitor is allowing to put on an article of clothing. Thirteen jumps is normally more than enough to see a competitor fully dressed for the day.

I got in trouble with the stern-faced Russians who didn't want me to create a guy who is mortal.

Anybody who writes a diary insists it must be read by someone else.

I've always been fascinated by Eisenstein.

I don't believe in the deplorable notion of realism in the cinema: you can over-reach it, and it becomes as false as convention.