I alternate between feeling incredibly lucky that I've gotten away with almost everything I wanted to do, and feeling like I've been shafted..

I felt, "Oh, film is a great art because I can pull in music and visual imagery, and it has its literary aspects and drama." Film was a sort of Wagne….

When people are temperate in their behavior, in their lives, someone who is addictive or extreme or obsessive can't understand how people can just go….

I think there's a general sense that the belief structures that existed and carried civilization forward have weakened to the point where they can no….

Most of my movies get about a third raves, a third vicious attacks, and a third in-between..

I'd been basically anchored in New York for three years, but I fled to L.A. after the funeral and decided that I had to start a movie immediately. It….

[Robert Downey was being singled out for] selective prosecution. He's a sweet guy who never did harm to anyone except himself. He's been doing drugs ….

I think that one of the things that is happening in the so-called "clash of civilizations" is that the confidence that was once obvious in the Wester….

In a way, I think that the movie Fight Club [1999] did a weird, negative thing to boxing, culturally. I mean, it is sort of similar to what has happe….

Some people get married and they remain "I," some get married and become "we.".

The past is history, the future's a mystery..

The collaborator has to be someone who understands that his role is to help you articulate what you want, but at the same time is not just going to b….

You will never convince anyone to do anything unless you believe it should be done..

It's hard to give a dramatic shape to even the most dramatic life. . . . you are forced not just into selectivity, but into alteration, distortion an….

I've struggled seriously to make movies with very little money, that I write, that I direct, that mean my life to me. The idea that I would offer a p….

What am I hanging around for? But I'm hanging around because it's still fun..

Boxing is not coming back. There's not going to be a new Ali or a new Tyson. What's happened to movies is happening to boxing-that is, too much avail….

Death is a part of life, and eventually I assimilated that completely..

Much as I like getting awards in Oldenburg, Germany and Torino, it's nice to get one in America..

I work seriously with complete integrity. I never, never, never have offered a part to anyone who didn't deserve it, and I've never not delivered whe….

I feel like Alain Delon, who once said, "It doesn't matter that I'm not a star in America because I'm a huge star in France, I'm a legend in Spain, a….