I even get inspired by movies that aren't very good, because there's always something good in movies that are collectively thought of as a failure. There's good in everything, I find.

I'm not really interested in making money. That's always come as the result of success, but it's not been my goal.

There is a fine line between censorship and good taste and moral responsibility.

The older I get, the more I look at movies as a moving miracle.

When I was very young, I remember my mother telling me about a friend of hers in Germany, a pianist who played a symphony that wasn't permitted, and the Germans came up on stage and broke every finger on her hands. I grew up with stories of Nazis breaking the fingers of Jews.

I wouldn't have filmed The Color Purple if the book had been a big fat novel. The reason I read it is because it is thin.

I've been shooting movies and television shows for now 47 years and I've worked with the best of them and [Kirk Douglas] is the only movie star I ever met.