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" 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. "

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

" I remember in 1968 when we were in Cannes, in the festival, and we were supposed to be there 10 days, and the second day the festival collapsed because the French, you know, film-makers raised the red flag in the festival and ended the festival. "

" I was born in a small town. My parents, my father was a teacher. My mother was a housewife. "

" Humor was not important only for me, humor was important for this nation for centuries, to survive, you know. "

" Mediocrity never goes away - but neither, I hope, do those who are willing to challenge it. "

" You either have commercial pressure or ideological pressure. I prefer commercial pressure; otherwise, you can be at the mercy of one or two idiots. "

" When I came for the first time to the United States, visiting, I was absolutely fascinated by New York. "

" Milan Kundera was my literature professor. He's a Francophile, so he made us read French novels like 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses,' which I made a version of many years later as 'Valmont.' "

" People must not think that all bad in man which is unleashed, the moment you impose censorship disappears from man. "

" In Czechoslovakia, we consider Kafka a very funny man. A humorist. "

" I get out of the taxi and it's probably the only city which in reality looks better than on the postcards, New York. "

" You know, 20 years... the films of television when it started, the literature, radio in communist countries, they're clean as a whistle; there was no violence, no sex, no drugs, nothing. "

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

" The worst evil is - and that's the product of censorship - is the self-censorship, because that twists spines, that destroys my character because I have to think something else and say something else, I have to always control myself. "

" Communists love to make films about composers because composers compose music and don't talk subversive things. "

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

" Now, after the communist take-over in 1948, the amount of feature films produced dwindled to three a year, while the school was, you know, every year another three, four, five students. "

" Because I just loved to spend two years of my life in the company of Andy Kaufman and other characters. "

" 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. "

" And also they were absolutely brilliant in one way, you know: they knew how effective is not to punish somebody who is guilty; what Communist Party members could afford to do was mind-boggling: they could do practically anything they wanted - steal, you know, lie, whatever. "

" First of all, whoever didn't want to be a member of this association or the other association, was branded, you know, like a dangerous individualist, you know, infected by the Western decadence, you know. So everybody joined. "

" I tell you, in my opinion, the cornerstone of democracy is free press - that's the cornerstone. "

" 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. "

" Ever since I was a child, I was fascinated by show business, the theater. "

" So I left with Jean Claude and went to Paris, so when the Russians came to Prague, I was in Paris. "

" So, thanks God, our films, our first films were suddenly being appreciated by the Western media; especially France was very good, and Switzerland was very good. "

" It's not a lighthearted decision to change your language, your country, your citizenship, and come to a world where you don't know anybody, to leave a place where you've had opportunities to build friendships from childhood. That's quite a big decision to make. "

" Well, I wouldn't say that this experience had any influence on my decision to do this film about Andy, because Andy was apolitical. Andy was never political. "

" I am absolutely against any violence. "

" Technically, you can learn everything on the set as an assistant director, and rather quickly. "