One does not have to make Frank Capra movies to like people.

The reality of the final moment, just before shooting [the scene], is so powerful that all previous analysis must yield before the impressions you receive under these circumstances, and unless you use this feedback to your positive advantage, unless you adjust to it, adapt to it and accept the sometimes terrifying weaknesses it can expose, you can never realize the most out of your film.

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

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

A filmmaker has almost the same freedom as a novelist has when he buys himself some paper.

I've never laid a cane on the back of a lord before, but if you force me to I shall speedily become used to the practice.

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.