I don't think you can ever return, really.

I think Hollywood... well, there is no Hollywood anymore so let's just call it the mainstream since the business is no longer Hollywood producing its own films and then distributing, they just distribute.

...if our humanity - our soul as a society - is overtaken by the materiel and cosmetic, there will be no hope of peace.

The world around us is in a sea change, and I think the glory of art is that it cannot only survive change, it can lead it

I have no regrets, because I've done everything I could to the best of my ability.

I believe in mythology. I guess I share Joseph Campbell's notion that a culture or society without mythology would die, and we're close to that.

I was raised in California during the Second World War and into the '50s and everything was fine, everything was great. The sun always shone, everybody looked healthy and wore ties and smoked in restaurants, and there were cars for everybody - except us, because I came from a lower class neighbourhood. But [in France] I realised there was a different point of view, so when I came back to America a year and a half later I was much more focused on my own country culturally and politically.