“If it’s a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what was going on.”

Drama is real life with all the boring parts cut out.

Disney has the best casting. If he doesn’t like an actor he just tears him up.

Television has brought back murder into the home – where it belongs.

The ideal husband understands every word his wife doesn’t say.

In the documentary the basic material has been created by God, whereas in the fiction film the director is a God; he must create life.

The only way to get rid of my fears is to make films about them.

Seeing a murder on television can help work off one’s antagonisms. And if you haven’t any antagonisms, the commercials will give you some.

Seeing a murder on television can help us unload the feelings of hate themselves. If you do not have feelings of hatred, may be obtained in the advertising interval.

In films murders are always very clean. I show how difficult it is and what a messy thing it is to kill a man.

Our primary function is to create an emotion and our secondary function is to sustain that emotions.

A woman, I always say, should be like a good suspense movie: The more left to the imagination, the more excitement there is. This should be her aim – to create suspense, to let a man discover things about her without her having to tell him.

Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.

There is something more important than logic: imagination.

I am a typed director. If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach.

I like stories with lots of psychology.

A lot of movies are about life, mine are like a slice of cake.

I had a very easy time loving an audience. But when it’s one-on-one with somebody, all I wanted to do was run away, because maybe they’re going to want something from me I can’t give, or they’re going to hurt me.

I’m the audience’s representative on earth.

It’s always an inner wish of every actor to reach out to maximum audiences.

I’m not the best audience for that because I’m not a great science-fiction fan. I just never got off on space ships and space costumes, things like that.

If I’m selling, I want them all selling in the audience. If I’m coming back, I want them all coming back. If I’m bleeding, I want them bleeding. If I win, they win. If I lose, they lose.

It’s the actors who are prepared to make fools of themselves who are usually the ones who come to mean something to the audience.

Documentaries are a powerful and effective way of bridging the gap between worlds, breaking through to new audiences that wouldn’t otherwise be engaged – in essence, not preaching to the choir.

I’m always gonna do my own thing. I wanna be something – whether I’m 19 years old working at a pet store, or I’m 19 years old with a No. 1 record – I wanna be the biggest I can be to my crowd, no matter what my crowd is.