Films are always pretentious. There's nothing more pretentious than a filmmaker..

I've always had trouble with authority..

Egotism is not a good quality. It's not something to be admired or even tolerated. It wouldn't be tolerated in a field commander and it shouldn't be ….

I was never conscious of my screenplays having any acts. It's all bullshit..

To be a good executive you have to be strong, and you have to have a simple attribute that people have forgotten about - courage..

I mean, the old film critics just excoriated me..

Charging a man with murder in this place was like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500..

I hardly said a word to my wife until I said 'yes' to divorce..

I may not be the strongest guy or the most well armed, but you can put me in a room with a pencil and a piece of paper and I can kill anybody..

I felt that the Star Wars series became very pretentious as time went on. Just heavy and leaden..

The people that really pass judgment on you really have nothing to do with what you do, usually..

Matter of fact, the style that people use today, I invented in a way..

You know, I find it very strange when movies that I made that were just excoriated - I mean that I was just vilified for - are now looked at as class….

No, you're either born a writer, a storyteller, or you're not..

Writing requires a great deal of skill, just like painting does. People don't want to learn those skills..

There is a certain kind of respect for authenticity today that there wasn't back in the days when they did 'Cleopatra,' where everything looked like ….

A lot of directors don't know what they want to do. Every director I've seen that was a good director that I've admired knew exactly what he wanted t….

I'm the barbarian of Hollywood..

Most artists think they're frauds anyway..

I suppose when I started out I would have liked to have been the darling of critics or something, but everybody wants to be loved and admired..

Everybody's a filmmaker today..