Cool? Am I cool? I don't know, but I hope my characters are cool, in the sense of iconic. That's my job, at its very essence..

In movies, it's so easy to have this 'boom,' to kill, and I think that's inhumane..

Cinema for me only has meaning when it has a relationship with what I see outside on the street..

When things aren't working out, we have a tendency to say, 'Go do other things,' but you shouldn't do other things. You need to stay at your desk and….

It's truly gratifying to see my films reach beyond a familiar public, to get a chance to move new audiences. It's nuts. It's extraordinary..

When things aren't working out, screenwriters have a tendency to say, "Go do other things," but you shouldn't do other things. You need to stay at yo….

The so-called "remake" is simply a commercial formulation of a much deeper exchange which accounts for the way cinema is what it is..

The cinema, as literature, as all the plastic arts, do not exist outside of a critical system that allows us to study them..

When someone is punched in the face, you find out what they are made of..

If I ask my actors to bare themselves, to reveal themselves as almost naked, I have to bare myself, expose myself as well. That's what creates excite….

I was the little French boy who grew up hearing people talk of De Gaulle and the Resistance. France against the Nazis! Then when that boy grew up, he….

What interests me about genre is that the public connects immediately with it, it has certain rules, certain codes the audience recognizes. I can use….

Beauty is subjective: Bette Davis wasn't beautiful, but she was more than beautiful..

I don't feel comfortable with violence, and I'm not sure that I film violent scenes properly, and it's something I'm reticent to do, and yet violence….

Do we root for Michael Corleone in the 'Godfather' films? I think so, even if he is a monster..

I think 'Scarface' is a great film, but if you have a character like Tony Montana, you don't identify with him at all. I think it's very interesting ….

Used properly, cinema is the coolest thing in the world..

An archetypal gangster is always at a remove. We can't get into his mindset..

The most heroic thing you can do is tell someone that you love them..

When you're a kid and your father is an engineer, he goes to the office. I saw my father get up and go to the office in the house and write. But I do….

If you look at American studios, the big productions have nothing to do with reality..