Everything has already been done. every story has been told every scene has been shot. it’s our job to do it one better.

Gee, I wish we had one of them doomsday machines things.

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.

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 great nations have always acted like gangsters, and the small nations like prostitutes.

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

Shooting a movie is the worst milieu for creative work ever devised by man.