The first really important book I read about filmmaking was The Film Technique by Pudovkin. This was some time before I had ever touched a movie camera and it opened my eyes to cutting and montage.

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

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

The destruction of this planet would have no significance on a cosmic scale.

Be suspicious of people who have, or crave, power. Never, ever go near power. Don't become friends with anyone who has real power. It's dangerous.

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

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