There's nothing really original. Alien was a B-movie. Five directors passed on it before me. Because I was into Heavy Metal, I read it, and thought, "Wow, I want to do this." I was on a plane to Hollywood in 22 hours. It was a B-movie and was elevated to an A-plus movie by sheer good taste.

I spend a lot of my time just developing material; or the company does. That material can come from a book, can come from a newspaper, can come from a discussion and sometimes it can come from a script that got passed over and is floating around.

It's everything and I always make decisions about the cast.

If I have to, I'll go and direct theater and talk till the cows come home.

The whole process of making movies and writing screenplays is visceral and intuitive.

I knew exactly what to do on Alien, it was funny.

Good FBI officers are not noticeable. You would never look at them.