Well, there's no question that a good script is an absolutely essential, maybe the essential thing for a movie.

I've produced my own films for twenty years now - it means I have to talk to less people.

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

Once I start to do a film, it has inferences. If a guy walks down a street and kicks a dog, you're saying something about that guy. A guy walks down the street and somebody's about to be run over and he shoves him out of his way and gets hit by the car himself, you're saying that guy's a hero. You can't avoid making certain statements.

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

I have to have a working knowledge of light, and optics, film emulsions and their properties, and lenses, otherwise I can't create the shoots that are the vocabulary of the films. But it is not necessary for me to be a cameraman, I can hire a cameraman.

When you make a film you usually make a film about an idea.