"What is a cult? It just means not enough people to make a minority." "I fiddle in the corner where they throw the coins. Where I can get my work done." "I've about had it - the agencies, the winking, the networks, the ratings. Anyone who thinks TV is an art medium is crazy - it's an advertising medium." "When I see an American flag flying, it's a joke" - to the London Times, 1/22/02 (About his relationship with mainstream Hollywood): "We're not against each other. They sell shoes and I make gloves." "Retirement? You're talking about death, right?" "Filmmaking is a chance to live many lifetimes." "Wisdom and love have nothing to do with one another. Wisdom is staying alive, survival. You're wise if you don't stick your finger in the light plug. Love - you'll stick your finger in anything." "Every ad for every film is exactly the same." "Jazz has endured because it doesn't have a beginning or an ending. It's a moment." "Mr. and Mrs. Smith get married, they have problems, they get back together and they live happily ever after. End of the movie. Two weeks later, he kills her, grinds her body up, feeds it to his girlfriend who dies of ptomaine poisoning, and her husband is prosecuted and sent to the electric chair for it--but here's our own little story with the happy ending. What is an ending? There's no such thing. Death is the only ending." This (MASH (1970)) didn't get released by Fox, it escaped. "The Rules of the Game taught me the rules of the game." "What I'm looking for is occurrence, truthful human behavior. We've got a kind of road map, and we're making it up as we travel along." "The business is run by accountants who, as long as a film makes $40bn, don't care if it kills the industry. Everything can also be shown so quickly in the home - which means that the people who go to movie theaters are teenagers who just want to get away from home. The audience has changed and the content has changed to suit that audience. But, even if I'll be an outdated item very shortly, I intend to carry on as long as I can." "And when I look around America today I feel we're over-saturated with goods. Like most of western Christian civilization, we feel it's fine if we're comfortable and, if the rest of the world isn't, then that's their problem. We're not generous. And the idea of paying some chief executive $40m a year is just obscene. I don't deny it's nice to have silk sheets or whatever, but we live in a deeply unequal society and our luxury is both excessive and wasteful." "I don't storyboard anything. I go on a set in the morning and, unless a scene requires a lot of props, I won't even tell the crew what I'm going to shoot first. I know what the set-up is and which actors are required. But I have to see what occurs and like to shoot in sequence if possible. It makes for a lot of editing but I like to go on a journey with the actors. I also love working on ensemble movies like Nashville, Short Cuts and Gosford Park. Having multiple narratives makes my job a lot easier: if something doesn't work, it means I can cut away to something else. I also like the audience to use their necks to take in everything happening in the frame. I'd hate to do something like Two for the Seesaw where there were just two close-up faces to look at." "People talk about my signature. But I ask them if they ever saw Howard Hawks' films. They're filled with overlapping dialog. Everything I've learned has come from watching other directors: Bergman, Fellini, Kurosawa, Huston and Renoir." "The actors have to know the play because they have to memorize the words. The technicians have to know the play because they have to organize the sound and light cues. But I want to keep myself as virginal as I can. I say, 'Tell me what this play is about.' I'll find out as I do it and I'm really looking forward to seeing it. I don't advise young directors that this is what they should do. This is simply my method." "I can't think of a better award - to me it's better for all of my work than for just a couple of things." [on his Lifetime Achievement Oscar (2006)] "I was redundant! Meryl Streep doesn't need a director. She's kind to them; she's really nice. She'll compliment you, and say, 'That was good - what you did.' I was so happy the next day to get on the stage with a lot of other actors. I didn't have to be just . . . whelmed by Miss Streep. Anyway, Meryl - I'll get over this. In spite of the personal sadness I got from working with you, I'm glad I did." [at the Coolidge Award ceremony in April 2006 referring its recipient.]