I love the process of making films and an incidental satisfaction is the fact that most of them made money.

First, you have to be intelligent. I have never met a successful director who isn't intelligent. A director who is not intelligent might have one hit picture, but he won't be able to follow it up. So I look for intelligence.

I love the process of making films and an incidental satisfaction is the fact that most of them made money.

There's always something that draws you away from the original script.

There was a fairly big difference between Detroit and Beverly Hills. I remember this. Detroit actually was a prosperous bustling city when we moved here in 1941. But the first day in Detroit, you always wore a shirt and a tie to school. And I wore a shirt and a tie to Beverly Hills High School, and a girl came up to me and said, "Where are you from?" And I said, "Detroit." And she said, "And you won't be wearing a tie tomorrow, will you?" And I said, "You're absolutely correct." So that was my first adjustment to a slightly more casual environment.

One of the worst things you can do is have a limited budget and try to do some big looking film. That's when you end up with very bad work.

In science-fiction films the monster should always be bigger than the leading lady.