"Then each one becomes more difficult as I go along. On the Waterfront — you go straight to Marlon Brando. It was a good picture all around, a good script, and Kazan directed it brilliantly. And the shooting on location, I would assume they would have never shot in a studio — the look of the film gives a great sense of realism, that you are there on the waterfront, you’re there in cold weather, you can see the breath coming out of the actors mouths. I would say it’s probably — probably — Marlon’s best performance, although you would have to give a nod to Godfather."

"Little Linda Manz’s voice-over is enough of a reason to watch this film. Forget the perfect performances by Richard Gere and Sam Shepard, or Brooke Adams’s twisted damsel in distress, or the way the wheat blows at magic hour making you forget the specter of murder that hangs over it all. I’m obsessed with the fact that production designer Jack Fisk built the farmhouse, which is meant to look as old as time and it really does. Also, while shooting Badlands (the previous Malick), Fisk wooed his future wife, Sissy Spacek, by leaving gifts for her in her character’s drawers. Swoon."

"I think that [E.T.] was a whole new way of entertaining. I think that the whole idea of shooting from E.T.’s point of view — humans. And always making us kind of look like villains, and scary. You know really — how did E.T. feel in this world? And then the whole idea of being a fish out of the water kind of idea, it was so well done. Spielberg did just a spectacular job on that. It was literally for everyone to enjoy. I mean, it doesn’t matter — women, men, young, old — everybody could enjoy that movie."