Richard Marquand said:

I fit the bill in that it seemed like they were looking for a younger man who has a great deal of experience, can work hard and fast, make up his mind and stick to it, and run a crew very quickly. I knew then what George was searching for was not the old school movie director who would wait for the weather to get the shot he wanted. He wanted someone who could improvise, think on his feet.

When we met, I felt extremely comfortable. It was one filmmaker talking to another filmmaker. It was very good. We talked about our films and how we dealt with certain problems. It was not in any sense an interview or the kind of thing that happens in Hollywood where you must put on a tremendous performance to impress somebody.

I told George that, if I was going to direct this adequately, I would need loyalty and support in the areas that were new to me. In a way, being the director of a film of this size is rather like being the President of the Ford Motor Company. You don’t necessarily have to know how to weld a car door, but you must make damn sure the guy who is doing it for you is someone you know, that you know his skills and that he’ll do a good job.

If you are the director you are really the man who says what goes. There are always stories in the movie industry about directors getting pushed around by producers. But, all those producers are people who really don’t understand how movies get made. You can only really have one person doing that job. The good thing about George Lucas is he knows that fact.