We're animals. We're violent. We're criminal. And if I've done anything, I've had kids express themselves as they are.

I became a set designer for opera. I'm a great opera buff, I love classical music, and I needed a time-out.

Most children - I know I did when I was a kid - fantasize another set of parents. Or fantasize no parents. They don't tell their real parents about that - you don't want to tell Mom and Dad. Kids lead a very private life. And I was a typical child, I think. I was a liar.

Oh, I adored Mickey Mouse when I was a child. He was the emblem of happiness and funniness. You went to the movies then, you saw two movies and a short. When Mickey Mouse came on the screen and there was his big head, my sister said she had to hold onto me. I went berserk.

My father could be very witty, even if the humor was always on the darker side of irony.

To be a healthy person, you have to be sympathetic to the child you once were and maintain the continuity between you as a child and you as an adult.

Children are the best living audience in the world because they are so thoroughly honest.