If something works for you, you continue to do it. I did a bunch of pictures for 20th Century Fox when Alan Ladd was over there, but I set the budgets so low that they'd approve and I'd deliver the film. They would have no say in it, which is the kind of arrangement I liked.

I don't know what "Altmanesque" means, though I suppose I'm flattered by it.

Filmmaking is a chance to live many lifetimes.

I like audiences to crane their necks.

Most of my films I call arena films. I deal with a confined area -- an arena -- and I try to cover every aspect of it.

Retirement? You're talking about death, right?

There was not a lot of dialogue. The titles were just to keep you up. It's the visual stimulation that hits the audience. That's the reason for film. Otherwise, we might as well turn the light out and call it radio.