Milos Forman

When you make a film, you realize that the audience will be powerless to stop it or flip back to refresh their memories or skip the boring parts. They are at the mercy of your storytelling.

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

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

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.

I worked with Jack Nitzsche for 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,' and we'd booked a symphony orchestra. He dismissed them and came with a little man who poured water into glasses of different sizes to make a glass harmonica. And most of the music for the film was that - with some Indian flutes and some drums.

Because if you lived, as I did, several years under Nazi totalitarianism, and then 20 years in communist totalitarianism, you would certainly realize how precious freedom is, and how easy it is to lose your freedom.

You think you can do anything, and then you slowly learn how wrong you are.

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

I think everybody dreamt somehow to make a film in Hollywood, you know.

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

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

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.