- As a filmmaker, I don't direct. I take away. I extract. Orson said I was like an old Eskimo carving away at a walrus tusk, trying to find what's inside.
- I don't believe in rehearsals...because the best stuff can happen the first time around, and why put yourself in a position when you have to say, 'Oh, damn, I wish I had that on camera!'
- [on Fellini's 8½ (1963)] It taught me that it was OK to do the very thing that I'm criticized for, which is to use my own life as the subject, such as my emotions or those of the people very close to me. It's something that nobody questions in the other arts, but since movies are the so-called popular medium, people do question whether that is too narcissistic. I talk about this subject a lot in my character in Venice/Venice (1992). People try to tell you that it's wrong because movies are a popular medium, and therefore you should find a popular common denominator. If you have the temerity to think of movies as art, then I don't think that should apply.
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