Survival often feels like an indignity.

My life is a suitcase. I am the traveling Mexican.

Somebody said to me, in a very well-meaning way, at a screening, "We love the movie but it's too violent. If you tone down the violence you could reach a great audience of kids.".

When I was a teenager there was no video in my country. Betamax came to Mexico very slowly.

The idea for me is that if the movie connects with you the way I want it to connect with you, you should be experiencing both the horror and the wonder as a child would. From a child's point of view. When we're kids, brutality registers differently than when we are adults. Because as adults, we get too used to violence.

For me, lost causes are the only ones that are worth fighting for. The other stuff is not worth fighting for.

I feel that your ambitions should always exceed the budget. That no matter what budget you're doing, you should be dreaming bigger than the budget you have, and then it's a matter of reigning it in to the reality. You try to make things count.