"The notion of directing a film is the invention of critics - the whole eloquence of cinema is achieved in the editing room."

"In Italy, for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, they had 500 years of democracy and peace - and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

"Create your own visual style... let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others."

"The ideal American type is perfectly expressed by the Protestant, individualist, anti-conformist, and this is the type that is in the process of disappearing. In reality there are few left."

"I'm writing a book. I've got the page numbers done."

"Age appears to be best in four things old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read."

"A good day is one where I can not just read a book, but write a review of it. Maybe today I'll be able to do that. I get for some reason somewhat stronger when the sun starts to go down. Dusk is a good time for me. I'm crepuscular."

"We have talked long enough in this country about equal rights. It is time now to write the next chapter - and to write it in the books of law."