The truth of a thing is in the feel of it, not in the think of it.

Know what it is the emotional statement to convey, and use taste and judgement to help the actors give their best possible performance.

What do you take me for? A fourteen karat sucker?

How could we possibly appreciate the Mona Lisa if Leonardo had written at the bottom of the canvas: 'The lady is smiling because she is hiding a secret from her lover.' This would shackle the viewer to reality, and I don't want this to happen to 2001.

The essence of dramatic form is to let an idea come over people without it being plainly stated. When you say something directly, it's simply not as potent as it is when you allow people to discover it for themselves.

The dead know only one thing, it is better to be alive

I used and abused drugs and alcohol. When I stopped doing that it became a lot clearer that life goes from inside to giving as opposed to taking and destroying.