“Listen, anybody who has a film festival has the right to show what they want.”

He brought his food with him, he brought his language with him, he never spoke a word of English.

So what. What are you going to do? Jump off the Empire State Building?” It’s all still the same. The last day of your life is still going to be a day.

Which filmmaking is completely done under in many circumstances. You’re under constant crisis, making a movie

A lifetime isn’t long enough to learn how to make films.

I’m about my characters.

A script is not a piece of literature, it’s a process.

You want to make movies on telephones, I’m there.

I was raised a Catholic and when you’re raised a Catholic they don’t teach you to think for yourself. You’re taught not to think too deeply about things.

I’m in a house where if the washing machine shuts off, it sings a song. If iPad gets a message, it sings a song.

I live with a bunch of yuppies and models.

The last day of your life is still going to be a day.

Then there’s that thing, maybe it’s not true. Who knows? Are you going to believe it? Are you going to buy it?

I come from a world where you get the film done, that’s a success.

Although I guess being a poet is a different than having to deal with 40 or 50 people to raise a couple million bucks and all that bullshit.

I was born in the Bronx, and then my father moved us to the country at an early age.

There are a lot of other things that are important, you know. You know what they say. Life is what happens when you’re doing other things, right?

You don’t get to know anybody in a movie until after it’s over. You work less together in a film than you do onstage.

Chekhov was as important to me as anybody as a writer.

I don’t believe in looking past anybody – I wouldn’t look past the Little Sisters of the Poor after they stayed up all night.

I’m delighted. I don’t know of anybody who had a statue built of them while they were living. It’s a great feeling.

Anybody who deliberately propagandizes with lies should be held up to scorn and ridicule.

My concept is that anybody has creative ability, but very few people know how to use it.

Then we don’t have to celebrate it or let anybody know about it, simply let the mind have firm confidence in the goodness and keep going like this.

I often say to my assistants, “Never trust anybody,” but what I mean is that you should never trust someone else to do a job exactly the way you would want it done.