“In my mind, there isn’t as much of a distinction between documentary and fiction as there is between a good movie and a bad one.”

Therefore, when you see the end result, it’s difficult to see who’s the director, me or them. Ultimately, everything belongs to the actors – we just manage the situation.

Maybe more than a teller, I am a story listener. I really enjoy listening to stories. I remember them and keep them in my mind. All of my films are a collection of small stories that have been told to me.

Religion works on some people but not on everyone, because it says, ‘Stop thinking and accept what I tell you.’ That’s not valid for people who want to think and reflect.

It’s true that the best way of knowing yourself is to put yourself into different situations.

Anything I’ve not experienced I do not look to for a subject. I have to feel it.

Children are very strong and independent characters and can come up with more interesting things than Marlon Brando, and it’s sometimes very difficult to direct or order them to do something.

I have no advice for anyone on how to live.

I prefer the countryside to cities. This is also true of my films: I have made more films in rural societies, and villages, than in towns.

I thought that I had been asked every kind of question possible.

When I’m in the process of making a movie I’m not thinking about the finished result, and whether people have to see it once or more than once, and what the reaction to it will be. I just make it, and then I live with the consequences.

We don’t look at each other [in the car], but instead do so only when we want to. We’re allowed to look around without appearing rude. We have a big screen in front of us and side views.

If it does, the fruit will not be as good as it was in its original place. This is a rule of nature. I think if I had left my country, I would be the same as the tree.

This was pointed out to me by somebody who referred to the paintings of Rembrandt and his use of light: some elements are highlighted while others are obscured or even pushed back into the dark.

Cinema seats make people lazy. They expect to be given all the information. But for me, question marks are the punctuation of life.

A digital camera does have many advantages and I was a believer that digital video would be a big influence on film-making.

Everybody knows that I am not usually patient enough to actually sit down and watch one of my own films from the beginning to the end – I never do.

It is a badge of distinction, an emblem of success, without having to say too much about it.

There’s an important difference and distinction between the objective medical fact of my being an amputee and the subjective societal opinion of whether or not I’m disabled.

The distinction between right and wrong (“la distinction du bien et du mal”, Fr.), is nothing else than their unyielding (or implacable) opposition.

Distinctions are no longer made, or deemed necessary, between the real and the false; the edge usually goes to the latter, as an improved version with defects corrected – accessible and user-friendly.

A distinction must be made between true and false ideas, and that too much rein must not be given to a man’s imagination under pretext of its being a clear and distinct intellection.

When the divine vision is attained, all appear equal; and there remains no distinction of good and bad, or of high and low.

If it be true that our people represent a high percentage of mental vigor, the distinction is probably due, in some measure, to the extremely important part which Talmud studies have played in the spiritual life of the race.

It is hard for many people today to make the distinction between religion and religiosity, the latter a dangerous parody of the former.