One of the chief duties of the mathematician in acting as an advisor. . . is to discourage. . . from expecting too much from mathematics.
A man who renounces something is also a man who believes in something.
The greatest danger for those working in the cinema is the extraordinary possibility it offers for lying.
I didn't like university life much at Bologna. The subjects I studied - economics and business administration - didn't interest me. I wanted to make films. I was glad when I was graduated. Yet it's odd; on graduation day, I was overcome with a terrible sadness. I realized that my youth was over and now the struggle had begun.
The family today counts for less and less. Why? Who knows - the growth of science, the Cold War, the atomic bomb, the world war we've made, the new philosophies we've created; certainly something is happening to man, so why go against it, why oblige this new man to live by the mechanisms and regulations of the past?
Nothing regarding man is ever inhuman. That's why I make films, not iceboxes.
When a scene is being shot, it is very difficult to know what one wants it to say, and even if one does know, there is always a difference between what one has in mind and the result on film.
The body is what reminds us on a daily basis that we're human. The body defies us, it betrays us, we have to struggle with it, you know. And it reveals in curious and in abiding ways how we are not perfect.
I don't believe in open relationships. If you want to be with someone else, you shouldn't be in a relationship in the first place.
Among the weeds choking out growth and good government are the hundreds of boards, commissions, and advisory committees that have sprouted over the years. They devour time, money, and energy far beyond any real contribution they make.
I can't be reading novels when I'm writing a novel, because somebody's voice creeps in. The hardest thing to do is keep the tone and your attitude over the course of a year or however long it takes. But when I'm writing short stories, which I will be doing shortly, I can read anything I like.