“I feel most akin as an artist, in my life and my career, to Agatha Christie. I get where she was coming from, making 80 stories about a point of view. I want at the end of the day to have 50 or 60 stories that came out of my head. Some will hit the mainstream and some won’t, but they’ll all be about human beings, and the analysis of human beings. So she’s my hero.”
“I don't know how much movies should entertain. To me I'm always interested in movies that scar. The thing I love about JAWS is that I've never gone swimming in the ocean again.”
“Film as dream, film as music. No art passes our conscience in the way film does, and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our souls.”
“I'm in a unique situation. I'm like now an elderly retired guy who made a lot of money, and now I can just, instead of playing golf, I can make art films.”
“Comedy just pokes at problems, rarely confronts them squarely. Drama is like a plate of meat and potatoes, comedy is rather the dessert, a bit like meringue.”