[on The Devil's Own (1997)] In American film there is a good guy and a bad guy. It's the first thing my grandson always asks: Who's the good guy and who's the bad guy? When I say Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt are both good guys, that throws him. What's interesting to me is what happens when people with two different senses of what is right and what is wrong meet. What's interesting is the fact that these two men can love and respect each other. It makes it more complicated. Much more interesting and much more human.

I am oblique, I think that has to do with my own nature. I like trying to do things which work on many levels, because I think it is terribly important to give an audience a lot of things they might not get as well as those they will, so that finally the film does take on a texture and is not just simplistic communication.

[on Liza Minnelli] One of the happiest times in my life was during The Sterile Cuckoo (1969), mostly because of Liza. I've never seen anybody get more joy out of working and it's contagious.