“I would be too selfish if I said everyone should see my movies more than once. To say that would mean I’m just marketing my work!”

It’s not so much a question of whether we’ve shot it through 35mm or digital video; what is important is whether the audience accepts it as real.

I think life is so difficult to catch, it’s so furtive, that a copy, a film, can in no way catch it and represent it.

My films have been progressing towards a certain kind of minimalism, even though it was never intended. Elements which can be eliminated have been eliminated.

Film is very much a universal and common voice, and we can’t limit it to one particular culture.

I never really learned photography.

In real life, when someone’s partner calls them, they can tell from the first word their partner says what their mood is.

Cinema gives you the opportunity to be both a grandparent and a grandchild whereas in life you cannot be both at the same time.

As long as I take the responsibility of the choice, I have to make the choice that is as right as possible.

There were years when Hitchcock was like a master to me, but now I think he’s so artificial. I can watch films and say how technically beautiful they are, but I’m not impressed by any technicality.

I did not have a script [of Close Up]. I made notes in the evenings and we filmed during the day over 40 days.I didn’t sleep a wink for those 40 nights.

Silence doesn’t seem heavy or difficult.

It seems that film-makers are being divided between those working in digital and those who are not. I think it’s not something predetermined – it all depends on what project we have in mind, and on that basis we choose the medium.

Those same people, when they leave the theater, when they look behind the curtains they are curious about their neighbors, they can guess if their neighbors are siblings or a couple, how old they are, what their occupation is.

I do believe that a film like Ten could never have been made with a 35mm camera. The first part of the film lasts 17 minutes, and by the end of that part, the kid has totally forgotten the camera.

I have a picture from the end of the shoot, and in it I have lost all my hair.

I don’t have very complete scripts for my films. I have a general outline and a character in my mind, and I make no notes until I find the character who’s in my mind in reality.

I think when markets go up and there is no manipulation in markets and people question the market going up and it keeps going up, that is a true bull market.

I have two interests in life – markets and women. Both are concerned with four letter words – markets with the risk and woman with love.

I found the stock market very intriguing because prices used to fluctuate, I used to wonder why the price fluctuates.

I suppose, yes, I’ve been guilty of provocation but it’s also just common sense marketing – put a bottle of scent in a woman’s cleavage, or between her thighs – and men will notice.

Whether people like it or not, my marketing thought is if you keep something in front of people for too long, they get used to it.

Don’t blame the marketing department. The buck stops with the chief executive.

You accuse me of black marketing, but which of you has not slept with me?

New media is an amazing form of direct marketing in that you really get a sense of who your customer is, and you also get to know those people who may not be your customers yet but are aspirational and are hoping to be.