Comedy isn't necessarily all dialogue. Think of Buster Keaton: the poker face and all this chaos going on all around him. Sometimes it's a question of timing, of the proper rhythm.
Movies were invented for Jimmy Cagney, and he was invented for the movies. A perfect match.
I'm not really a Hollywood person. Not that I don't like L.A., but I'm just a Northern California guy.
If you're really satisfied with your position on something, you just say, 'Hey;' you just very calmly present something.
I have been trying to retire to the back of the camera for quite a few years, and in 1970, when I first started directing, I said, 'If I could pull this off, I can some day move to the back of the camera and stay there.'
When you work with kids, especially, you want to be ready to turn the camera on at a moment's notice.
I've always said the one advantage an actor has of converting to a director is that he's been in front of the camera. He doesn't have to get in front of the camera again, subliminally or otherwise.
Movies are fun, but they are no cure for cancer.
Crimes against children are the most heinous crime. That, for me, would be a reason for capital punishment because children are innocent and need the guidance of an adult society.
Just try not to ingest a lot of fats, and just try to eat carefully.
There are certain age limits on police officers. They'd have retired me out at 65.
I'm not really conservative. I'm conservative on certain things. I believe in less government. I believe in fiscal responsibility and all those things that maybe Republicans used to believe in but don't any more.
Naturally, everybody has certain things they wish they hadn't done in life. They wish they hadn't kicked their dog when they were ten or something.
Every picture has its own demands, and every picture stimulates something within you to tell it a certain way. I don't know what that is; I don't think too much about that.
I always thought of myself as a character actor. I never thought of myself as a leading man.
I liked Vittorio De Sica a lot, and I got to work with him once in a segment movie. He was a great director. He was a very charismatic character and a guy I watched a lot when he was directing.
I don't think I've met anyone with a stronger work ethic than Ray Charles.
When you listen to Ray Charles, there's never any doubt whose voice that is.
A lot of dumb pictures have made a lot of money, but that doesn't mean they're going to be anything cinema students will revel over in the future.
Even people on the liberal side are starting to worry about going off a fiscal cliff.