No director wants to be directed, but no good director... would shy away from the good ideas of others.
I have worked on very good movies that have been buried, and I've worked on some resounding mediocrities that have been paraded through the marketplace like they were masterpieces.
My home town is very small and very remote and we don't have a movie house.
As an actor to watch an audience of people howl together in a single mind as a result of work you've done together with friends is a privilege.
The most important question in American cinema, I've learned, is 'When is lunch?'
The tactic of leading people into... a war that doesn't make any sense by telling them they are under attack, and if they raise any objection they're unpatriotic, is a very old tactic. And it doesn't intimidate me.
I'm an introspective guy when there's money in it.
It's no mean calling to bring fun into the afternoons of large numbers of people. That, too, is part of my job, and I'm happy to serve when called on.
Cormac McCarthy's language is perfect. He is in my view the greatest living American prose stylist.
I like to make movies on the west side of the Mississippi River, and a lot of times, the movies I direct have horses and big hats in them and get called westerns, but that's okay. I used to resent that, but I don't anymore.
You know, I don't really think you have to play nice guys.
It's no fun to be a struggling young actor. It's a desperate thing, no way to be happy. If you have any alternative, you should take it.
Normal people with normal problems can be hilarious.
As a child of West Texas, I identify with Hispanic culture every bit as much as I do North American culture.
Partnerships are good engines for narrative.
In the political world, the only position I have is voter. I'm not a spokesman for anything.
I do not have a sense of humor of any recognizable sort.
I think any stereotyping is too much.
You can't instruct an audience to laugh, but what you can do is read well and understand the spirit and subtleties, if there are any, in the dialogue.
I'm kind of pleased with myself that I've got a tailor on Savile Row. I'm 68 years old. I deserve it.
