Listen, if there's one sure-fire rule that I have learned in this business, it's that I don't know anything about human nature.

I was interested in the idea of succession - showing a father and a son both in their own time and drawing a contrast

I have much to learn from my daughter Sofia. Her minimalism exposes my limitations: I'm too instinctive and operatic, I put too much heart into my work, I get lost sometimes in bizarre things - it's my Italian heritage.

I was terrible at maths, but I could grasp science, and I used to love to read about the lives of the scientists. I wanted to be a scientist or an inventor.

I was excited to discover, in this tale by Eliade, the key themes that I most hope to understand better - time, consciousness and the dream-like basis of reality.

Cinema without risk is like having no sex and expecting to have a baby.

There can't be art without risk. It's like saying No Sex, and then expecting there to be children.