I don't care if it's a mystery story, a Western, or the story of Julius Caesar. To me it's the emotion, the lies, the double-cross, whether it's Brutus doing it to Caesar or Bob Stack doing it to Robert Ryan that defines what kind of drama it is.

If your first scene doesn't give you a hard on, throw it out!

We'll build a democracy here, even if it's with Nazi bricks.

A film is like a battleground. It's love, hate, action, violence, death—In one word, emotions.

Mark Twain didn't psychoanalyze Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer. Dickens didn't put Oliver Twist on the couch because he was hungry! Good copy comes out of people, Johnny, not out of a lot of explanatory medical terms.

We got a right to climb out of the sewer and live like other people. We could start from scratch. Make every minute count twice for the one we lost.

Heroes? Don't believe in them.