When I saw Taxi Driver when I was 16, I was blown away by it. I had never seen a movie with such an impressive portrayal of an alienated character, or of an urban environment at night.
I had seen two films that made a big impact on me: Robert Bresson's Pickpocket and Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samouraï. They both featured these alienated, ascetic, almost monastically solitary antiheroes. I thought, I can make a modern American version of that story, where the guy is driving a taxi.
— Paul Schrader · The Guardian, 'Paul Schrader on Taxi Driver' interview