David Seltzer

“There is an inalienable law. Whenever a character on screen pities himself, the audience stops pitying him. They will cry so long as the character doesn't.”

“I think the success of any movie is dependent upon it being a singular vision.”

“I have an imagination that will go in any direction it is prodded. I pride myself on being able to become enthusiastic about anything: If you tell me to write a screenplay about cucumber farms, I'll swallow hard, and in 48 hours, I'll be in love with cucumber farms.”

“Teenagers have no advocate. I think any other minority so maligned by Hollywood would have pickets around the theater saying, 'We are not just idiots.'”

“We shot 'Lucas' in 42 days; that's a lot of filming.”

“I don't see myself as having a dark side.”

“I think it's time to explore our relationship to the hereafter and the now and determine whether or not there is a part mankind can play at this time to forestall the nuclear bubble breaking and the world coming to an end.”

“When you watch television shows, as good as they are, like 'Joan of Arcadia' and 'Touched by an Angel,' everything is this kind of mishmash of faith but not any specific religion.”

“I've learned to live without sleep.”

“I'm a real soft, sentimental guy who dreams up decapitations.”

“I think people wanted to see some specificity in faith on TV.”

“I'm not afraid to say 'Jesus Christ,' and I'm not afraid to speak of those who worship him. After all, Jesus preached about love.”

“I've always been a dog owner, from the time I was a little boy in Chicago.”

“I want to encourage the non-star, low-profile film, and maybe we've got a chance.”

“My role model, my idol, was Francois Truffaut.”

“I would say it's not as hard as writing, because when you're a writer, you walk right into the pit all by yourself, but when you're a director, there are at least 80 people who scream, 'Don't do that!' when you make a mistake.”

“When a man tries to communicate with an animal, there's a relationship between them, and you generally find this between the dog and his master.”

“It was hard for my friends to equate me with a picture like 'The Omen.'”

“If one wants to talk about the end of the world, the apocalypse, you're talking about the world itself. It's not Southern California breaking into the sea. The story is global, and it requires that kind of approach.”

“I'm not afraid to use Christ as an icon.”