“I have a 92 year old father whose doing beautifully who lives in Chicago and a sister and a nephew and a niece and I love coming back and try to do so fairly often.”

If anyone would have been paying serious attention to my puppet shows, I would have been sent to therapy very young.

Oh, I was completely hooked on movies and plays and theater from the time I was a day old; I was very, very early on in love with movies and I loved plays.

I’m from the Midwest, and I loved my family. I had a very good time as a child, but I was also – I have a theory about Jews growing up in the Midwest, that there is an ultimately sort of wonderful avoidance of a lot of things, and a great acceptance of whatever is happening.

I was very much in my room with my marionette stage, you know, creating these incredibly boring things that I felt were so fascinating, and forcing my relatives to come, and charging money for them to see my little productions.

The difference between a friend and an acquaintance is that a friend helps; an acquaintance merely advises.

And I think being a good director is being able to be completely tyrannical and you?ve got to be an absolute dictator while at the same time, you have to listen and see everything because it can all change on a dime.

I’ve directed a fair amount of television series – so I’m always trying to learn new things.

I loved being in Close Encounters, just to watch Steven Spielberg working was exciting.

Yes I try to do everything I can not to fail hideously.

The only limits in our life are those we impose on ourselves.

I draw strength from spirit, from the divine light. I draw strength from the love my sister and I have for each other, from my nieces,

I have 14 nieces and nephews.

I respect that you want to protect your niece. You know, I didn’t want my daughter to become a boxer. Neither did Mohammad. But Joe Frazier, on the other hand, he had his baby girl boxing in the crib.

Sometimes you take a job for the money, sometimes you take it for the location, sometimes you take it for the script; there are just a number of reasons, and ultimately what you see is the whole landscape of it. But I can tell you from behind the scenes – that’s what it is, as an actor.