Anything that has a relationship with pleasure we reject it. Eating, they talk about cholesterol; making love, they talk about Aids; you talk about smoking, they talk about cancer. It's a very sick society that rejects pleasure.

Racism is not nearly as important as poverty. That's the same around the world. What look like ethnic problems are really economic issues. If you look closely at all these conflicts around the world, they come down to poverty and economics and resources. The more poverty, the worse the war.

I wanted to make a real love story with a bad ending, because a love story that ends good is the life of everyone - you and I, for example. I always say to people, You know, if Romeo and Juliet got married, nobody would care about them. Imagine Romeo and Juliet, six kids yelling, mama, mama, papa, papa.

America is a very special place. In this country, you have the best and the worst at the same time. Whatever you can imagine.

Start [the movie] in color. Color is always attributed as fun, and black and white is very sad.

My mother always told me I had to do 100 times better than a man. I had to work hard at maths, and learn four languages.

Life is absolutely unbearable. And we're going to die.