Strangely enough, there's this mythology sprouting out that I cannot stop.

I have made 70 or so films. In all my films not a single actor, a single extra, was hurt. Not one. So statistics are on my side when I say I'm clinically sane.

If an actor knows how to milk a cow, I always know it will not be difficult to be in business with him.

For example, how you would introduce a leading character into your film, and as an absolute ingenious example, [Elia] Kazan in his film Viva Zapata!, how he introduces his leading character Marlon Brando into the film. No film ever did it as wonderful as he did it.

The danger is to stupidly believe that depicting facts gives us much insight. If facts were the only thing that counted, the telephone directory would be the book of books.

Only the poets can hold the country together, and I wanted to hold Germany together.

Of course, as a German, I wouldn't like to tell the American people how to handle their criminal justice.