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

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

Chess teaches you to control the initial excitement you feel when you see something that looks good and it trains you to think objectively when you're in trouble

The director's job is to know what emotional statement he wants a character to convey in his scene or his line, and to exercise taste and judgment in helping the actor give his best possible performance.

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 best education in film is to make one

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