Since I knew I was going to make a film that was purely about emotions, and I knew that I ran the risk of being accused of amnesia relating to the social film, to prevent this I decided it would be good to have characters who were on the margins of society. These are characters for whom love is really the only way to know that they're alive.

I wanted to be a lawyer. I love that job; I dont know why.

I hope each day to have done 10 seconds of good work that they can use in the film. And Im always afraid I didnt get those 10 seconds.

I like being surrounded by students and intellectuals.

Because if I were gay, [and] I'm not gay yet — maybe one day — but if I were gay, I'd like to see movies where homosexuality isn't always a problem.

Because I'm Parisian, I wanted to show a Paris that I don't see at the movies, so I spent a lot of time looking for places that have never been filmed, for streets that have never been filmed because there's a thing about Paris, where it's kind of like a charming music box, this luminous cocoon, like those things that have fake snow in them that you turn upside down.

At the end of the day you do have to write a short novel beforehand, called a script, before you can make a movie.