To rap Nixon, even if you don’t like him, is a cop out. To put your life’s problems on the war or the impending threat of the bomb is a cop-out, because everyone knows, and still feels, that it begins with you. That life begins with yourself and your relation to people, your feeling about them, and your ability to stand up for something at the right time. To stand up for every individual thing that you really feel and not let that die, even if you have to do it all alone.

I make films about social relationships. I strongly believe that we are social animals and the nature of living is defined not by money, political power and the like, but by virtue of the fact that we are social beings. The problem with people in America is that they are so politically oriented, so economically oriented, that the human level has disappeared and there is only an abstract level of agreement – and that’s lifestyle. If your lifestyle is like my lifestyle, then we like each other. If your lifestyle is not like my lifestyle then we can see nothing in each other.