I don’t think there’s any artist of any value who doesn’t doubt what they’re doing.
The professional world was much more unpleasant than I thought. I was always wishing I could get back that enthusiasm I had when I was doing shows at college.
Drinking wine is just a part of life, like eating food.
The essence of cinema is editing. It’s the combination of what can be extraordinary images of people during emotional moments, or images in a general sense, put together in a kind of alchemy.
I’ve been offered lots of movies. There’s always some actor who’s doing a project and would like to have me do it. But you look at the project and think, ‘Gee, there are a lot of good directors who could do that.’ I’d like to do something only I can do.
The most adventurous thing I’ve done is learn how to fly a helicopter in the Philippines. One night we landed on a beach and slept on it.
I believe that filmmaking – as, probably, is everything – is a game you should play with all your cards, and all your dice, and whatever else you’ve got. So, each time I make a movie, I give it everything I have. I think everyone should, and I think everyone should do everything they do that way.
I have more of a vivid imagination than I have talent. I cook up ideas. It’s just a characteristic.
I liked to work in a shop down in the basement and invent things and build gadgets.
Art depends on luck and talent.
I like to work in the morning. I like to sometimes go to a place where I’m all alone where I’m not going to get a phone call early that hurts my feelings, because once my feelings are hurt, I’m dead in the water.
We were raised in an Italian-American household, although we didn’t speak Italian in the house. We were very proud of being Italian, and had Italian music, ate Italian food.
I became quite successful very young, and it was mainly because I was so enthusiastic and I just worked so hard at it.
I was a pretty shy, lonely kid. I blossomed about age 17, when I went to college.
If you’re a person who says yes most of the time, you’ll find yourself in the hotel business and the restaurant business.
We had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little, we went insane.
The things you get fired for when you’re young are the same things that you get lifetime achievement awards for when you’re old.
Most Italians who came to this country are very patriotic. There was this exciting possibility that if you worked real hard, and you loved something, you could become successful.
A number of images put together a certain way become something quite above and beyond what any of them are individually.
I had a number of very strong personalities in my family. My father was a concert flutist, the solo flute for Toscanini.