ELI ROTH

I love movies that are just straight-up exploitation, but the ones that endure and the ones that last are the ones where the filmmakers put in that extra level of thought; after 25 years you put them on in front of an audience, and they'll respond to it and enjoy it.

As a kid, I was the neighbourhood baby-sitter - very responsible, always in charge.

I think horror should never be safe, whether it's violent or non violent.

I get a little too obsessive with work.

As a director, you have to know what actors are doing. You're the one telling them what to do. The actors' job is to come prepared to the set, but sometimes, if they're beginning actors or people who are non-actors, you have to teach them how to act.

You know, the dirty secret in the Director's Guild is that the average life expectancy of Director's Guild members is 57 years old. The stress level is so high and directors are generally really out of shape, cause they sit in the chair and they eat craft service.

I like to take risks and do weird things and stuff that's not normal compared to other Hollywood movies. Not stuff that's totally avant garde and daring, but doing stuff that's in other languages and not using stars and using real people - things that they generally don't do in mainstream films.

Look at comic books. It used to be something that only geeks were into. And now it's everywhere.

When people direct insults at me, I can take it.

I'm not interested in going after a part. I think if someone wants me for a part and approaches me then I'll take it on a case-by-case basis and see what that part is.

I think that many people are ashamed when they feel afraid. There's this thing in our society that you're not allowed to feel scared. You have to be a man and put on a brave face, but we all have fears.

When someone throws up while watching one of your movies, it's like a standing ovation.

Movie stars need to retain some of that mystique if you are a big movie star.

I have control issues. For sure, no question.

I have so many different projects, I hear voices in my head - the characters talking all at once - and I have to write to make them stop.

Possession and exorcism is something that's in every religion and every culture. It's a real primal fear: Is the body a vessel for our spirits? What happens if something else takes over it? Where does the spirit go?

As a kid, my idols were Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson, and I get into crazy races with myself. Raimi was 21 when he made movies, and when I didn't get 'Cabin Fever' made that fast I thought I'd failed.

Anytime you're the first to speak out against something, there's going to be a backlash.

Lucio Fulci is such a massively underrated director. Everyone knows him as the Godfather of Gore.

I think in life we get very caught up in the minutia and, unfortunately, it generally takes some sort of tragedy in your life to put things in perspective.

Horror movies are the best date movies. There's no wondering, 'When do I put my arm around her?'

'Eraserhead' is a weird, horrible nightmare, and it doesn't narratively make sense. Stuff's happening, but you honestly feel like you're in a nightmare, and it has such disturbing imagery that it stays with you forever once you've seen it.

Life is a series of avoiding horrible situations until ultimately you're dead. That's how I feel about things.

Everyone is so terrified of being labeled a racist.

Anytime you make a movie, the goal is a wide theatrical release, with the right distributor.