"In the theater there are 1,500 cameras rolling at the same time - in the cinema, only one."

"A director is someone who presides over a series of accidents."

"Hollywood is a gold-plated suburb suitable for golfers, gardeners, assorted middlemen, and contented movies stars. I am none of these things."

"The word genius was whispered into my ear, the first thing I ever heard, while I was still mewling in my crib. So it never occurred to me that I wasn't until middle age."

"A long-playing full shot is what always separates the men from the boys. Anybody can make movies with a pair of scissors and a two-inch lens."

"You're beautful. Yes you are, you're very very beautiful. Extremely beautiful."

"It isn't worth it. No money is worth this... [walks out]"

"The camera is much more than a recording apparatus, it is a medium via which messages reach us from another world."

"What's happening now is what happened before, and often what's going to happen again sometime or other"

"An artist is always out of step with the time. He has to be."

"Our songs will all be silenced, but what of it? Go on singing."

"Now I'm an old Christmas tree, the roots of which have died. They just come along and while the little needles fall off me replace them with medallions."

"I'm one of those fellows so frightened of driving that I go 80 miles an hour - and the more frightened I get, the faster I go."

"A poet needs a pen, a painter a brush, and a director an army."

"The director is simply the audience. His job is to preside over accidents."

"The director is the most overrated artist in the world. He is the only artist who, with no talent whatsoever, can be a success for 50 years without his lack of talent ever being discovered."

"I hate women, hate them generally, not in particular but in an abstract way. I hate them because one never really learns anything about them. They are inscrutable."

"I look back on my life and it’s 95% running around trying to raise money to make movies and 5% actually making them. It’s no way to live."

"Personally, I don't like a girlfriend to have a husband. If she'll fool her husband, I figure she'll fool me."

"In my opinion, there are two things that can absolutely not be carried to the screen: the realistic presentation of the sexual act and praying to God."

"If I ever own a restaurant, I will never allow the waiters to ask if the diners like their dishes. Particularly when they're talking."

"I love informality. I hate dressing up. I hate to be conventional - and I hate every kind of snob."

"[I have a] fondness for telling stories, like the Arab storytellers on the marketplace. ... I will never grow tired of [telling] stories [and] I make the mistake of thinking that everyone has the same enthusiasm!"

"There are three intolerable things in life - cold coffee, lukewarm champagne, and overexcited women."

"Paris is the playwright's delight. New York is the home of directors. London, however, is the actor's city, the only one in the world. In London, actors are given their head."

"Hollywood is Hollywood. There’s nothing you can say about it that isn’t true, good or bad. And if you get into it, you have no right to be bitter — you’re the one who sat down, and joined the game."

"I've spent most of my mature life trying to prove that I'm not irresponsible."

"Ignorance sheer ignorance. There is no confidence to equal it. It's only when you know something about a profession that you are timid or careful."

"I don't say we all ought to misbehave, but we ought to look as if we could."

"There are only two emotions in a plane: boredom and terror."

"'The Godfather' was the glorification of a bunch of bums who never existed."

"Friendship creates only the illusion of not being alone."

"Every true artist must, in his own way, be a magician, a charlatan."

"The most personal thing I've put in [Touch of Evil] is my hatred of the abuse of police power. It's better to see a murderer go free than for a policeman to abuse his power."

"A bad word from a colleague can darken a whole day. We need encouragement a lot more than we admit, even to ourselves."

"Future shock is a sickness which comes from too much change in too short a time. It's the feeling that nothing is permanent anymore."

"I'm not basically a happy person, but I have all kinds of joy."

"The cinema has no boundary; it is a ribbon of dream."

"Working is part of life, I don't know how to distinguish between the two... Work is an expression of life."

"A writer needs a pen, an artist needs a brush, but a filmmaker needs an army."

"A man is not from where he is born, but where he chooses to die."

"If there hadn't been women we'd still be squatting in a cave eating raw meat, because we made civilization in order to impress our girlfriends."

"Race hate isn't human nature; race hate is the abandonment of human nature."

"I prefer people who rock the boat to people who jump out"

"We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we're not alone."

"Don’t give them what you think they want. Give them what they never thought was possible."

"If everyone worked with wide-angle lenses, I'd shoot all my films in 75mm, because I believe very strongly in the possibilities of the 75mm."

"I prefer the old masters, by which I mean John Ford, John Ford, and John Ford."

"I can think of nothing that an audience won't understand. The only problem is to interest them; once they are interested, they understand anything in the world."

"I have made an art form of the interview. The French are the best interviewers, despite their addiction to the triad, like all Cartesians."