Everyone has seen photographs of Mexicans wearing those big sombreros. When you come to Mexico, the astonishing thing is, nobody wears these hats at all.

Film is shot in fragments, and the same moments can be shot again and again until the director is satisfied.

On stage, the audience watches from a fixed viewpoint and the director cannot retake something he doesn't like. It has to work straight through.

Directing an opera is similar to directing a play. The singing must not get in the way of the drama.

When the music and the characters are flawlessly synchronized, the opera develops an emotional force that movies and plays cannot match.

Perhaps the most difficult thing is shooting scenes set 6,000 feet up in the mountains of Mexico.

When we were trying to get the money together for the film, one reason that was consistently given for not investing in it was that everyone kept saying no one could direct it well enough to entertain an audience for 100 minutes essentially watching three people chatting in the kitchen.