John Cassavetes

I think I probably have the philosophy of a poor man. You know, like maybe I'd steal the pennies off a dead man's eyes.

I'm a great believer in spontaneity because I think planning is the most destructive thing in the world.

I think people are very stiff. Money makes people stiff, and we want it, and we have to pay the penalty. I never agreed with stiffness. I think people have an understanding of what their life is. I define success by being a realist and not humiliating people. I'm a revolutionary - but not in the political sense.

I think I'm probably one of the worst directors around, but I do have an interest in my fellow man.

The camera is the slave to the actor.

I don't care about being on top, about being No. 1. I just make movies for a few suckers in the audience, anyway.

You must be willing to risk everything to really express it all.

I have a one-track mind. That's all that I'm interested in - love. And the lack of it. When it stops.

There is no reason why a serious film, one about life, can't be enjoyable, maybe even fun. Emotions can be very entertaining, you know. I try to use them generously in my films.

My mother and father were never frightened of anything. They always felt that they should go through life happily and without fear, and they did that. And it was a great boon to my brother and myself.

By the age of 50, I would like to know that I'm not dead - that there's some continuity to my life.

Faces' became more than a film. It became a way of life, a film against the authorities and the powers that prevent people from expressing themselves the way they want to, something that can't be done in America, that can't be done without money.