Steven Spielberg

And when I met Stanley, I was surprised he knew anything I had done, and he just wanted to talk about Duel.

The movie I made, the TV movie I made with Dennis Weaver about the truck chasing the car.

Thank you.

And that's what he wanted to talk about.

And then we didn't talk for long because he was busy, but he said, why don't we talk more?

Come over to the house for dinner tonight.

And so I got a chance to meet Christian and Jan Harlan and Vivian and his daughters.

And that was it.

And that was the beginning of our relationship.

Sean, you never claim him as a New Yorker.

Well, what I learned was he was a human being.

And I also learned he was not a recluse as he's so often been accused of.

And I think it's the most unfair thing about Stanley's reputation is that people think he's like Howard Hughes.

He never left his house, didn't speak to people, didn't go out anywhere.

Stanley used a telephone, and Stanley used all kinds of means of communication.

If Stanley had been born now, he would have reinvented the iPad and the iPhone to his needs.

He would have bent it toward his visionary needs.

He kind of did.

He sort of did.

But Stanley really, really was social in the sense that if he liked somebody's movie, he would surprise a director and call them and just say, hi, it's Dennis Cooper here.