Make the movies you want to make in Europe is much easier. Of course, you don't have all the money you need, and if you go over budget, then you have to find the money, or you sell your house or something. But you have much more freedom.

This crisis started probably due to the freedom they gave to the banks. First President [Ronald] Reagan and then President [Bill] Clinton. So, for [Barack] Obama it is extremely difficult to change now, to find a way to organize this banking system [differently].

More and more, money is becoming a religion.

Technology is an extension of our hands and our feet, not our spirit.

Essentially, filmmakers have to be free and not directed by power or politicians.

We saw what happens with Bolsheviks. It was another catastrophe. I don't have the solution. The moviemaker can ask questions but not give solutions.

[Akiro] Kurosawa, no doubt, was a big influence. Movies sometimes more than directors have influenced me: The Grapes of Wrath, by John Ford, was an extraordinary discovery. Sergei Eisenstein, of course. Later on, [Ingmar] Bergman.