I don't think that writers or painters or filmmakers function because they have something they particularly want to say. They have something that they feel. And they like the art form; they like words, or the smell of paint, or celluloid and photographic images and working with actors. I don't think that any genuine artist has ever been oriented by some didactic point of view, even if he thought he was.

I've got a peculiar weakness for criminals and artists. Neither takes life as it is. Any tragic story has to be in conflict with things as they are.

There are few things more fundamentally encouraging and stimulating than seeing someone else die.

The feel of the experience is the important thing, not the ability to verbalize or analyze it.

However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

[Making movies] you're not trying to capture reality, you're trying to capture a photograph of reality.