If Gary Cooper and Henry Fonda had a baby, it would be Matthew Modine.

Have you ever had a single moment's thought about my responsibilities?

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

How could we possibly appreciate the Mona Lisa if Leonardo had written at the bottom of the canvas: 'The lady is smiling because she is hiding a secret from her lover.' This would shackle the viewer to reality, and I don't want this to happen to 2001.

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.

Either you care, or you don't. There's no in-between. And if you care, then go all of the way.

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