The very meaninglessness of life forces man to create his own meaning. If it can be written or thought, it can be filmed.

It's impossible to tell you what I'm going to do except to say that I expect to make the best movie ever made.

Suppose by chance you do get picked up. What have you done? You shot a horse; that isn't first degree murder; in fact, it isn't even murder; in fact, I don't know what it is.

If you really want to communicate something, even if it’s just an emotion or an attitude, let alone an idea, the least effective and least enjoyable way is directly. It only goes in about an inch. But if you can get people to the point where they have to think a moment what it is you’re getting at, and then discover it, the thrill of discovery goes right through the heart.

You sit at the board and suddenly your heart leaps. Your hand trembles to pick up the piece and move it. But what chess teaches you is that you must sit there calmly and think about whether it's really a good idea and whether there are other, better ideas.

If you can talk brilliantly about a problem

If Gary Cooper and Henry Fonda had a baby, it would be Matthew Modine.