You're free to speculate as you wish about the philosophical and allegorical meaning of the film—and such speculation is one indication that it has succeeded in gripping the audience at a deep level—but I don't want to spell out a verbal road map for 2001 that every viewer will feel obligated to pursue or else fear he's missed the point.

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

I do not always know what I want, but I do know what I don't want.

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'm a slave to my imagination in terms of making narrative films.

I never learned anything at all in school and didn't read a book for pleasure until I was 19 years old.