It's A Mistake To Confuse Pity With

The World's Religions, For All Their Parochialism, Did Supply A Kind Of Consolation For This Great Ache. This Shattering Recognition Of Our Mortality Is At The Root Of Far More Mental Illness Than I Suspect Even Psychiatrists Are Aware.

I've Never Achieved Spectacular Success With A Film. My Reputation Has Grown Slowly. I Suppose You Could Say That I'm A Successful Filmmaker-in That A Number Of People Speak Well Of Me. But None Of My Films Have Received Unanimously Positive Reviews, And None Have Done Blockbuster Business.

When I Made My First Film, I Think The Thing Was Probably Helped Me The Most Was That It Was Such An Unusual Thing To Do In The Early 50s For Someone Who Actually Go And Make A Film. People Thought It Was Impossible. It Really Is Terribly Easy. All Anybody Needs Is A Camera, A Tape Recorder, And Some Imagination.

Some People Demand A Five-line Capsule Summary. Something You'd Read In A Magazine. They Want You To Say, 'this Is The Story Of The Duality Of Man And The Duplicity Of Governments.' I Hear People Try To Do It -- Give The Five-line Summary -- But If A Film Has Any Substance Or Subtlety, Whatever You Say Is Never Complete, It's Usually Wrong, And It's Necessarily Simplistic: Truth Is Too Multifaceted To Be Contained In A Five-line Summary. If The Work Is Good, What You Say About It Is Usually Irrelevant.

Never Say No To An Idea - You Never Know How That Idea Will Ignite Another Idea.