It was a sleepy gathering, not yet the make-or-break event for filmmakers that it would become, The festival was regarded by many distributors as toxic.

It was hard to know what to make of the brothers' dark infatuation with death. It was strange, wildly anomalous in sun-baked Southern California, where the light is so bright it bleaches the shadows.

I've never had a puff of marijuana, ... I've never had cocaine. I've never had speed. I've never had heroin. I've never had a sleeping pill.

It's the ideal situation to have any festival in one place. It's so much nicer for the filmmakers to have it in one place. It's more hospitable for them. It's fun for them to be around each other, and it's better for the public.

I don't see the big flocks of pigeons gathering around the sunflower fields yet as the pips are not developed.

It was a tragic, yet heroic event.