Quotes

One problem with Hollywood is that most of the people in studio jobs nowadays are afraid of the process of making movies. The actual fact of filmmaking is an alien thing to them...You try to get somebody to do a movie for you, but then, once that person commits to the project, you do everything you possibly can to neutralize him so that he can't do what you've hired him to do in the first place. (1994)

I've been lucky over my career to be able to transition back and forth between my two great passions - managing studios and producing movies. It feels like the right time to close this chapter and begin a new one. (2003)

[on returning to LA in 1993] The first month or two were harrowing interview. I didn't know the grammar, the people. I hadn't seen a movie in eight or 10 years. I made dopey mistakes, like Tank Girl (1995) not getting it, thinking, 'Is this the world I've re-entered? Does everybody have a safety pin through their tongue now?'

[Why he quit Hollywood in 1980] I wasn't enjoying it. I felt in some wacky way that I had lost myself, that I had no sense of myself and that I was being described by myself by my phone list and the invitations which I never responded to.

(Re 1960s- 70s in Hollywood): Kids were kings. We were all young, it was our time, and it was very exciting.

You're very unhappy for a long period of time. And you don't experience joy. At the end you experience relief, if you're lucky. (2009)