Quotes

Many of the things I accomplished in life are because I was dead set on proving somebody wrong.

The Oscar has endured because of our yearning for excellence. Getting one is like being appointed valedictorian from the bottom of the class. The "outs", like me, get their moment to be "in", for as long as it lasts.

Documentaries give you the arrogant privilege of opening someone's door and exposing the real person. The people in my films were involved with issues so important to them that they decided (a documentary) was the only way they could reach out and tell the world what was happening to them.

I've been married to one Marxist and one fascist, and neither one would take the garbage out.

[Academy Award acceptance speech] Thank you. I really must have wanted it otherwise why would I wear an old wedding dress? [Audience laughs] I think we [referring to the Oscar] had a fight twenty years ago, but he's changed. I know I haven't. But I would like to thank the artistic community for sustaining me in my wins and losses and sitting on the curb, whatever it was. I don't think there's an award for what Warren Beatty had to do to get Shampoo (1975) on, but I respect him and love him, and Robert Towne. And my director Hal Ashby, who encourages an actor to fly without a net because you know that he's there to catch you. Thank you.