Look at what people are trying to conceal, and you’ll see that they’re revealing everything.

I went into directing having observed and learned from the best. There was a certain standard of procedure. I found that I was equal to it. I thoroughly enjoyed directing, I liked it a lot. It's very satisfactory to see that you can do it. The art takes care of itself.

I don't trust a lot of popular films because they seem to indicate that people would like to be super-heroes or vampires, and that's the last thing I mean by the useful mirror of art.

I wanted to do London Boulevard because I saw the potential of a story about two people who need each other desperately, who love at first sight, as one does, and above all a story in which no one is what they appear to be.

If you see, as I do, in edited film, you're going to end up as a director.

In all honesty a gangster picture was the easiest kind of film for me to get made.

The old days of screenwriting, and myths about screenwriting, are maybe over. It's a literary form, if you can wake up to it.