If you really want to communicate something, even if it’s just an emotion or an attitude, let alone an idea, the least effective and least enjoyable ….

The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good..

Be suspicious of people who have, or crave, power. Never, ever go near power. Don't become friends with anyone who has real power. It's dangerous..

I do not always know what I want, but I do know what I don't want..

Nothing is as dangerous as a sure thing..

Everything has already been done. every story has been told every scene has been shot. it’s our job to do it one better..

Either you care, or you don't. There's no in-between. And if you care, then go all of the way..

The very meaninglessness of life forces man to create his own meaning..

Man isn't a noble savage, he's an ignoble savage. He is irrational, brutal, weak, silly, unable to be objective about anything where his own interest….

The feel of the experience is the important thing, not the ability to verbalize or analyze it..

A film is - or should be - more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what's behind the emotion,….

The destruction of this planet would have no significance on a cosmic scale: to an observer in the Andromeda nebula, the sign of our extinction would….

Chess teaches you to control the initial excitement you feel when you see something that looks good and it trains you to think objectively when you'r….

The great nations have always acted like gangsters, and the small nations like prostitutes..

I don't think that writers or painters or filmmakers function because they have something they particularly want to say. They have something that the….

The best education in film is to make one.

Never say no to an idea - you never know how that idea will ignite another idea..

You have not yet learned that in this life you have to be like everyone else: the perfect mediocrity--no better, no worse. Individuality is a monster….

There's something in the human personality which resents things that are clear, and conversely, something which is attracted to puzzles, enigmas, and….

However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light..

If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed..