I Always Tell The Younger Filmmakers And

Being Independent... Is Being Innovative Out Of Inspiration As Well As Necessity.

I'd Like To Do A Number Of Films. Westerns. Genre Pieces. Maybe Another Film About Italian Americans Where They're Not Gangsters, Just To Prove That Not All Italians Are Gangsters.

I Certainly Wasn't Able To Get It When I Was A Kid Growing Up On The Lower East Side; It Was Very Hard At That Time For Me To Balance What I Really Believed Was The Right Way To Live With The Violence I Saw All Around Me - I Saw Too Much Of It Among The People I Knew.

It’s Also True That I Might Have Never Made Taxi Driver [1976] Were It Not For The Success Of Alice [doesn’t Live Here Anymore, 1974]. The Question Of Commercialism Is A Source Of Worry. Must One Make A Choice, Must It Be A Matter Of Either Setting Your Sights On Winning An Academy Award And Becoming A Millionaire, Or Making Only The Movies You Want To Make And Starving To Death?

Always Get To The Set Or The Location Early, So That You Can Be All Alone And Draw Your Inspiration For The Blocking And The Setups In Private And Quiet.