Do I want to start my own production company? No, I doubt it. I’m too old for that. I don’t want to start anything.

I’m afraid that if I started to ponder who I am and what I am, I might not like what I find.

There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man... a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination.

I don’t believe in reincarnation. That’s a cop-out, I know. I don’t really want to be reincarnated.

Never make the mistake of assuming the audience is any less intelligent than you are.

I don’t enjoy any of the process of writing. I enjoy it when it goes on if it zings and it has great warmth and import and it’s successful.

I guess Requiem for a Heavyweight as old as it is was as honest a piece as I’ve ever done.

I don’t think playing it safe constitutes a retreat, necessarily. In other words, I don’t think if, by playing safe he means we are not going to delve into controversy, then if that’s what he means he’s quite right. I’m not going to delve into controversy. Somebody asked me the other day if this means that I’m going to be a meek conformist, and my answer is no. I’m just acting the role of a tired non-conformist.

When I dig back through memory cells, I get one particularly distinctive feeling-and that’s one of warmth, comfort and well-being. For whatever else I may have had, or lost, or will find-I’ve still got a hometown. This, nobody’s gonna take away from me.

I think I’d rather win, for example, a Writer’s Guild award than almost anything on earth. And the few nominations I’ve had with the guild, and the few awards I’ve had, represented to me a far more legitimate concrete achievement than anything.