"I don't like giving speeches. It makes me nervous."

"When I was in desperate trouble for maybe eight or nine years, I went to a neuropsychiatrist."

"What good is a character who's always winking at the audience to let them in on the secret?"

"We all grew up on movies with scenes where the actor is lying, and you know he's lying, but he wants to make sure you know it's a lie, and so he overacts and all but winks at you, and everybody in the world except for the girl he's talking to knows he's lying."

"I worked two days in Texas and two days in Hollywood on 'Bonnie and Clyde,' and that was it. I had no idea how it was going to turn out. And when I saw it, I was so upset, or fascinated, or something, by the sight of myself on the screen that I could hardly pay attention to the rest of the movie."

"Mel Brooks is one of the few authentic geniuses working in comedy in America today."

"If something comes along that's really good, and I think I would be good for it, I'd be happy to do it. But not too many came along. I mean, they came along for the first, I don't know, 15, 18 films, but I didn't do that many. But then I didn't want to do the kind of junk I was seeing."

"If you're not gonna tell the truth, then why start talking?"

"I think that directing is the ultimate martyred task of filmmaking, that it has nobility to it. It takes three years to make a film, for the most part. I think it requires the attentiveness of a mother hen."

"Every film is its own experience, its own planet, its own family. It seems infinite when you're working on it, and then it's suddenly very finite, and it's done."

"I love the rebelliousness of snail mail, and I love anything that can arrive with a postage stamp. There's something about that person's breath and hands on the letter."

"When I was growing up in New York City, my "father "was a taxi driver for a time."

"For me, going away to work is the hardest part of my life and career."

"I love my work, but there is no price you can put on what you miss when you are away from your kids."

"I grew up loving horses. I was relatively obsessed, starting with my rocking horse at age 2, all the way through my painting and drawing phase."

"I loved acting, I started as a child and it is interesting because I didn't compare myself to others that were doing the same thing. I just felt that I needed to stay focused and stay out of trouble."

"Catholics have guilt and Jews have guilt, fine. But mothers can trump them all."

"If people knew what made hits they'd make more of them, so to have the illusion of control over one's career isn't something I can even pretend to have."

"My roles are in some way like children to me. You don't ever really want to scrape one off your shoe."

"Well, I can fake my way around some things, but I don't think I would be good at betting."

"I was the only kid in Manhattan I knew whose parents had a car."

"I'm done saying 'I'm sorry I wasn't who you needed or wanted me to be' to everybody in my life."

"Imagine if somebody said your nose is too big or your ears stick out. For me, it was my neck was too short. It stuck with me all my life."

"In five years, I had done 13 films, which I think broke Elvis's record."