Let's just shoot in black and white. Don't explain why. Have no reason for it. Just do it because it's interesting.

I was looking for people who didn't have any preconceptions about films, what I call the "post-rules" generation.

I teach a course in screenwriting at Columbia, but I've never taken a course and I've never read a book about it!

All the animals come out at night.

'Taxi Driver' wasn't autobiographical in terms of the actual events, but I did draw on my own mental state.

Nobody has shot a strip club in black and white in a long time.

You can't take contradiction away. Part of the fun of it is that the contradiction never really quite goes away.

That's just my disposition - to create a situation where you have to come up with something.

You think it's a blessing to know what God wants? I'll tell you what he wants. He wants to push me over! Can't he see what's inside of me? All my sins.

I get bored very easily. I find most movies boring. I go to movies and ask, "How do they stay awake making this?"

Once you have a situation that is fresh, then you sort of believe in it and it becomes normal. So you do end up with protagonists that haven't been in other movies before.

I want to be happy; why do I do things that make me unhappy?

Those artists who say that somehow therapy or analysis will thwart their creativity are completely misinformed. It's absolutely the opposite: it opens closed doors.

One of the things that I do like about filmmaking is that you find out how to solve new problems.

I don't think it's very useful to open wide the door for young artists; the ones who break down the door are more interesting.

Anything that doesn't bore me I think is doable because it's keeping me awake.

Ultimately, it's an illusion that you can understand yourself.

The clock is impotent; mechanical time does not affect those living in an eternal present.

There's no escape. I'm God's only man.