So slowly in my mind formed the idea of melodrama, a form I found to perfection in American pictures. They were naive, they were that something completely different. They were completely Art-less.

Intellectualism came very late to America. That's why Americans are so proud of it. I found very few real intellectuals in America. But there are so many pseudo-intellectuals.

My idea at this time, which was slowly developing, was to create a comedie humaine with little people, average people - samples from every period in American life.

A director in Hollywood in my time couldn't do what he wanted to do.

I think the great artists (..) have always thought with the heart.

I was making films about American society, and it is true that I never felt at home there, except perhaps when my wife and I lived on a farm in the San Fernando Valley. But I always wanted my characters to be more than cyphers for the failings of their world. And I never had to look too hard to find a part of myself in them

Your characters have to remain innocent of what your picture is after.