What is happiness to me is not necessarily for you. Someone once said, there are three truths: your truth, my truth and the truth. And I think that's true.

Cubans joke and satirize everything that life gives them, and I think that's a positive characteristic.

The magic of film isn't just because of the big screen, or the acoustics, but the ineffable shared experience of going to the movies.

There was a time when emigration from Cuba was a definitive separation. There were no visits. In the '80s, '90s, it was incredibly difficult. I'm not the only one interested in this as a filmmaker - other Cuban filmmakers have dealt with it, too, because it's such a part of our reality.

The base of artistic pursuit is ambivalence and complexity. And that's what I try to do.

I don't think that the reality of Cuba is perfect, but it doesn't cleave to the negativity, either, with which some people see it.

It's true that in Cuba there are double standards, there's opportunism, and there is a lack of freedom in some ways.