The informing idea of what you want to say and do, that's what will take you from film school to professional - the idea. That's what is original to you.

I have control over every single frame on Blu-ray. If I want a scene bluer, I get that scene bluer. Originally, there was some fluctuation with the prints. If you made a thousand, or a few thousand prints, there is no control over any of that. But now I can make a master using the digital process.

In the case of a film like The Exorcist or To Live and Die in L.A., I saw the whole movie in my head before I went to shoot it. I never did storyboards, or anything like that. I had the film in my head.

I tend to be attracted to characters who are up against a wall with very few alternatives. And the film then becomes an examination of how they cope with very few options. And that's, I guess, what interests me in terms of human behavior.

The studios mostly threw away the negatives of the classic films. They had no interest in their legacy.

I believe today that there is no film and no shot in a film that is worth a squirrel getting a sprained ankle.

I don't look back or analyze my films. I just make them. It's for someone else to look at.