“Page 61: No matter where I go in the world, although I can’t speak any foreign language.”

When it is very well expressed, one experiences a particularly deep emotion while watching that film.

My films come from my need to say a particular thing at a particular time. The beginning of any film for me is this need to express something.

I can’t afford to hate anyone. I don’t have that kind of time.

To be an artist means to search, to find and look at these realities. To be an artist means to never look away.

A truly good movie is enjoyable too. There’s nothing complicated about it.

To be an artist means never to avert one’s eyes.

It’s easy to explain the psychological state of a character at a particular moment, but it’s very difficult to describe it through the delicate nuances of action and dialogue. Yet it is not impossible.

While the cameras are rolling, I rarely look directly at the actors, but focus my gaze somewhere else.

They often reveal much about themselves in a very straightforward way. I am certain that I did. There is nothing that says more about its creator than the work itself.

With a good script a good director can produce a masterpiece; with the same script a mediocre director can make a passable film. But with a bad script even a good director can’t possibly make a good film.

That is what makes a real movie. The script must be something that has the power to do this.

For truly cinematic expression, the camera and the microphone must be able to cross both fire and water.

He is still my favourite author, and he is the one – I still think – who writes most honestly about human existence.

The role of the artist is to not look away.

To be an artist means to search, to find and look at these realities. To be an artist means never to look away.

There is nothing that says more about its creator than the work itself.

We didn’t look like scoring, although we looked like we were going to get a goal.

They recite their sacred books, although the fact informs me that these are a fiction from first to last.

My velvet Elvis means the world to me. Although he may not be worth much dough, he means more to me than some old Rembrandt or Van Gogh.

I am not a prisoner of my sexuality like men younger than myself although I write about being a prisoner.

Although human beings are incapable of talking about themselves with total honesty, it is much harder to avoid the truth while pretending to be other people.

I think the elections have gone well, although there is so much insecurity in Iraq. So far during the counting of ballots.

My parents told us how they felt but never imposed their beliefs on us, although I appreciate I got a healthy sense of democracy from them.

I don’t feel I ever played the victim, although I was always in jeopardy.