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

Churchill was a good writer but a bad historian.

I certainly don't believe you documentary filmmakers. Like me, you are involved in making fiction, and your fiction is just as well organized and just as well predicated, but the big difference between me and you is that I'm honest and you're dishonest. I know I'm telling you lies.

My audience is comprised of three categories. The first category contains the people who decide after the first five minutes that they've made a mistake and leave. The second category is the people who give the film a chance and leave annoyed after 40 minutes. The third category includes the people that watch the whole film and return to see it again. If I'm able to persuade 33% of the audience to stay, then I can say that I've succeeded.

The Sistine Chapel is an extraordinary work of education - it lays out all the early books of the Bible.

Too many proofs spoil the truth.

Since Caesar, we know his historians are liars. The good writers get read. Bad history doesn't get read.