If you want to send a message, try Western Union.

A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something.

[on Marilyn Monroe] "Breasts she had. And a wiggly figure. But to me sex is class, something more than a wiggly behind. If it weren`t, I know 200 whores who would be stars.

Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream, it takes over as the number one hormone; it bosses the enzymes; directs the pineal gland; plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to film is more film.

Behind every successful man there stands an astonished woman.

My advice to young film-makers is this: don`t follow trends, start them!

In our film profession you may have Gable`s looks, Tracy`s art, Marlene`s legs or Liz`s violet eyes, but they don`t mean a thing without that swinging thing called courage.

I made mistakes in drama. I thought drama was when actors cried. But drama is when the audience cries.

[James Stewart]`s appeal lay in being so unusually usual.

Don`t follow trends, start trends.

Scriptwriting is the toughest part of the whole racket... the least understood and the least noticed.

Film is one of the three universal languages, the other two: mathematics and music.

Whenever a situation develops to its extreme, it is bound to turn around and become its opposite.

My advice to young filmmakers is this: Don`t follow trends. Start them!

(upon receiving his AFI Lifetime Achievment Award) I`d be the first to admit I`m a damn good director.

Do not help the quick moneymakers who have delusions about taking possession of classics by smearing them with paint.

In our film profession you may have [Clark Gable`s] looks, [Spencer Tracy`s] art, [Marlene Dietrich`s] legs or [Elizabeth Taylor`s] violet eyes, but they don`t mean a thing without that swinging thing called courage.

[on his early dream to be an astronomer] I could study the stars and the planets forever. I always wanted to know why, why . . . Pictures changed my mind. I was too far along in the movie business. But when I go back to Caltech now and hear about things I`m not familiar with, like black holes, goddamn! I get mad. How the hell I ever refused that I don`t know . . . But it seems like motion pictures have a terrible hold on me. I don`t know what it is . . .

Compassion is a two way street.

Compassion is a two-way street.

A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something.

There are no rules in filmmaking. Only sins. And the cardinal sin is dullness.

I thought drama was when the actors cried. But drama is when the audience cries.