I am absolutely against any violence.

The way one perceives a book and a film are totally different. You read a book in the privacy of your room. You are the boss; you set the pace and rhythm of your reading. In the movie house, you can't do that.

I don't mind getting involved in a risky project as long as I don't have to stay married to it if the script turns out lousy.

We have funny ideas about how people in mental institutions act. We think of drooling and people going booga-booga and climbing the wall. These are exceptional cases.

I don't think I was ever as fascinated or have had so much respect for anybody like James Cagney.

If it weren't for 'Cuckoo's Nest,' it would be very difficult for me. It gave me a cushion to live at my artistic pace and not fear I wouldn't have money to live on.

I think if I tried very hard, I could do a novel or a play, a poem. I could possibly paint a picture, but I know I can't write music. And still, it is the most accessible of all arts, as you know when you hear a tune.

I can say, with a little arrogance, that I could be an actor, a cameraman, a writer, but composers are the most mysterious people.

Definitely, it would be foolish to try and make my Czech films here in America, as foolish as it is when some Czech filmmakers try to make movies of America in Czechoslovakia.

Individuals fighting or rebelling against the status quo, the establishment, is good for drama.