“A work of art doesn’t exist outside the perception of the audience.”

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.

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.

The roar of the crowd has always been the sweetest music. It’s intoxicating.

When you can take things that are painful and make them funny, that’s a gift – to you and your audience.

The best way to make your audience laugh is to start laughing yourself.

The audience has always been my best director.

I want to grow up, live my life, experience things, make movies about those experiences and by the time the audience catches up.

I see them in my audience all the time, with the fur coat, a woman whose hand is always out front, or the two fingers are on the cheek to show her diamond. I don’t have anything against that.

At male strip shows, it is still the women that we watch, the audience of women and their eager faces. They are more obscene than if they were dancing naked themselves.

I mean, it’s gotten to be really stretched out now. It was never my intention to say, this is the demographics of our audience.