I'm not going to be an interpreter at the U.N. I'm not going to live in Africa on a farm or whatever, but I am going to see the world through those eyes when I make those films.

People aren't interested in paying $10 or $12 to go to the movies and to be lectured to politically. I'm not either. So I don't try to make those kinds of films.

Film is a collective experience, as you know.

I think it's a terrible shame that politics has become show business.

If we were a primitive society, movie stars would be gods.

I'm not a very good predictor in any area of art, particularly my own. I don't know how to evaluate that.

Burt Lancaster was largely responsible for me becoming a director.