“I don’t like reverse-angle shots – I find them very fake and very untruthful to the viewer.”

The film [Close Up] made itself, to a large extent. The characters involved were very real, I wasn’t directing the actors so much as being directed by them. So it was a very particular film.

In order to be able to cooperate with a child, you have to come down to below their level in order to communicate with them. Actors are also like children.

I think Woody Allen is Woody Allen, and no matter where he goes he still makes his Woody Allen films.

The digital camera has given me total freedom and a different way of filming.

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.

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.

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.

She mistook the danger signals in her belly for butterflies.

I think, to me, reality is better than being fake.

I should now admit I once made a fake account just to talk to you once more.

I taught myself how to play the guitar, I taught myself how to play the drums, and I kind of fake doing both of them. But drumming comes more natural to me, and it just feels better.

It was probably in third grade – I had a super fake, gold herringbone chain. I don’t remember if it was my mom’s or how I got it, but ever since then, I’ve loved chains.

As long as we are faking it we are just showing the world how to fake it – but they already are! They want to see us get real.

False friends are like our shadow, keeping close to us while we walk in the sunshine, but leaving us the instant we cross into the shade.

If you haven’t got it. Fake it! Too short? Wear big high heels, but do practice walking!