I began teaching in New York because I needed to stay in the United States and didn't have my immigration papers in order, so working for a university was a way of resolving the issue.

I write for somebody who has my own limitations. My reader has a certain difficulty with concentrating, which in my case comes from being a film viewer.

My only fantasy about writing was that in my old days, after directing many masterpieces, I would write my memoirs.

I am only interested in bad taste if I can enjoy a gruesome tango or watch a movie that makes me cry.

The nicest thing about feeling happy is that you think you'll never be unhappy again.

The essayist has to follow a certain intellectual pattern. The novelist has the advantage of using fantasy, of being subjective.

Whenever I write, I'm always thinking of the reader.