The Cuban public is hugely cinephile. It's a shame that most of the movie theaters are so deteriorated. The sense of spectacle has been lost a little, but even so, people continue to go.

Immigration and travel certainly don't mean the same thing everywhere. Here in Cuba, the big wall isn't just the fact that it's an island, but the fact that we need an exit permit in order to leave, and the letters of invitation in order to visit another country.

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.

It's often pointed out that in Cuban cinema there are too many comedies, but a sense of humor is so much part of the Cuban idiosyncrasy. Curiously, the films that have been censored the most have been humorous.

In all of my movies I've tried to address the need for man - not just Cubans - to have a dream and to fight for that dream, even when he doesn't achieve it. It's a form of happiness.

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

Cuban public is special - they participate, generate a lot of energy, both in a positive and negative sense. It's always an expressive audience.