“The writer is either a practicing recluse or a delinquent, guilt-ridden one; or both. Usually both.”

“The city. The city as labyrinth. (No labyrinths in the country.) This, among other things, attracts me. The city is vertical. The country (+ suburbs) horizontal. I ‘set myself’ in the city… The sky, as seen in the city, is negative—where the buildings are not.”

“Camp involves a new, more complex relation to ‘the serious.’ One can be serious about the frivolous, frivolous about the serious.”

“One criticizes in others what one recognizes + despises in oneself. For example, an artist who is revolted by another’s ambitiousness.”

“Things I like: fires, Venice, tequila, sunsets, babies, silent films, heights, coarse salt, top hats, large long-haired dogs, ship models, cinnamon, goose down quilts, pocket watches, the smell of newly mown grass, linen, Bach, Louis XIII furniture, sushi, microscopes, large rooms, ups, boots, drinking water, maple sugar candy. Things I dislike: sleeping in an apartment alone, cold weather, couples, football games, swimming, anchovies, mustaches, cats, umbrellas, being photographed, the taste of licorice, washing my hair (or having it washed), wearing a wristwatch, giving a lecture, cigars, writing letters, taking showers, Robert Frost, German food. Things I like: ivory, sweaters, architectural drawings, urinating, pizza (the Roman bread), staying in hotels, paper clips, the color blue, leather belts, making lists, Wagon-Lits, paying bills, caves, watching ice-skating, asking…

“I feel—as a Jew—a special responsibility to side with the oppressed and the weak.”

“Filmmaking is nitpicking, anxiety, fights, claustrophobia, exhaustion, euphoria…. catching inspiration on the wing.… Filmmaking is blind instinct, petty calculations, smooth generalship, daydreaming, pigheadedness, grace, bluff, risk.”

“I believe that courage is morally neutral. I can well imagine wicked people being brave and good people being timid or afraid. I don’t consider it a moral virtue.”

“All my life I have been looking for someone intelligent to talk to.”

“Let the atrocious images haunt us.… This is what human beings are capable of doing—may volunteer to do, enthusiastically, self-righteously. Don’t forget.”