But the cinephile is … a neurotic! (That’s not a pejorative term.) The Bronte sisters were neurotic, and it’s because they were neurotic that they read all those books and became writers. The famous French advertising slogan that says, “When you love life, you go to the movies,” it’s false! It’s exactly the opposite: when you don’t love life, or when life doesn’t give you satisfaction, you go to the movies.

Everyone who works in the domain of fiction is a bit crazy. The problem is to render this craziness interesting.

Taste is a result of a thousand distastes.

I warmly recommend to you the films of poets.

An actor is never so great as when he reminds you of an animal - falling like a cat, lying like a dog, moving like a fox.

I prefer to be busy all day long, and when you work for someone else, you're not busy enough.

When I begin a film, I want to make a great film. Halfway through, I just hope to finish the film.