A film is - or should be - more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what's behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later.

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

The screen is a magic medium. It has such power that it can retain interest as it conveys emotions and moods that no other art form can hope to tackle.

I’ve never been certain whether the moral of the Icarus story should only be, as is generally accepted, ‘don’t try to fly too high,’ or whether it might also be thought of as ‘forget the wax and feathers, and do a better job on the wings.

The most terrifying fact about the universe not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent

Never say no to an idea - you never know how that idea will ignite another idea.

If you can talk brilliantly about a problem, it can create the consoling illusion that it has been mastered.