Quotes

The most fun I ever had in this business was on a picture called The Frisco Kid (1979). I was on set the entire time, producing, and [director] Robert Aldrich was this great and colorful character who was also the president of the DGA at the time. Gene Wilder was exciting to be around and Harrison Ford was just on the verge of being this giant star.

I really wanted to produce movies and didn't want to mix two occupations because I've always thought that being a "manager" and a "producer" with your clients is a conflict of interest . . . That is, unless you can somehow separate the roles completely. Agents have become managers so they can partner with their clients. The only problem is, as a producer, when you're talking to a manager you're generally not sure whether you're talking to the representative of the actor or someone, who, when you finally make the deal, says, "Oh, and by the way, I have to be one of the producers with a million-dollar fee and a back=end deal" . . . So I opted to give up my management company and become a full-time unemployed producer . . .

When I had a camera in my hand, in those days, I felt I could do as good, or even better work than anybody else. Stanley Kubrick was born and brought up where I was in the Bronx and he was a photographer who ignored his parents' advice and didn't go to college. He went to work for Look Magazine and that turned into a movie directing career. I took a different route.