I landed a job with Roger Corman. The job was to write the English dialogue for a Russian science fiction picture. I didn't speak any Russian. He didn't care whether I could understand what they were saying he wanted me to make up dialogue.
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.
People feel the worst film I made was 'Jack.' But to this day, when I get checks from old movies I've made, 'Jack' is one of the biggest ones. No one knows that. If people hate the movie, they hate the movie. I just wanted to work with Robin Williams.
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.
I wanted to write and direct movies and not be forced to adapt them from a bestselling book.
When newspapers started to publish the box office scores of movies, I was horrified. Those results are totally fake because they never include the promotion budget.
Steven Spielberg is unique. I feel that the kinds of movies he loves are the same kinds of movies that the big mass audience loves. He's very fortunate because he can do the things he naturally likes the best, and he's been very successful.
I think cinema, movies, and magic have always been closely associated. The very earliest people who made film were magicians.
I was never sloppy with other people's money. Only my own. Because I figure, well, you can be.
As long as I can make lots of money in other businesses, I'll continue to subsidize my own work.
We had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little, we went insane.
It takes no imagination to live within your means.
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.
When I was going for my graduate degree, I decided I was going to make a feature film as my thesis. That's what I was famous for-that I had my thesis film be a feature film, which was 'You're a Big Boy Now.'
I had a number of very strong personalities in my family. My father was a concert flutist, the solo flute for Toscanini.
They needed someone to write a script of The Great Gatsby very quickly for the movie they were making. I took this job so I'd be sure to have some dough to support my family.
I had a heartbreaking experience when I was 9. I always wanted to be a guard. The most wonderful girl in the world was a guard. When I got polio and then went back to school, they made me a guard. A teacher took away my guard button.
I'm no longer dependent on the movie business to make a living. So if I want to make movies as other old guys would play golf, I can.
Listen, if there's one sure-fire rule that I have learned in this business, it's that I don't know anything about human nature.
I don't think there's any artist of any value who doesn't doubt what they're doing.