On the set I make jokes I can't get too involved, or it turns into sentimental soup. I try to keep it light.

When making a film, I'm never concerned about whether the theme is new or whether it's been done before in cinema or not. I'm led to make films if there's a theme that interests me or I experience something in my own life that confronts me with something that I want to deal with.

Of course, we avoid death. To know something is inevitable is one thing. To accept, to truly feel it... that's different.

I consider all my films an experiment, at least in my mind.

It’s harder to write a story with just two people in a room than with 50 characters.

The trouble is that when you read criticisms about the other films that I've made you get the impression that they're all about themes, or problems, or ideas. But those are actually things that develop out of characters, out of images and out of other things. These more abstract things develop while working on the material, and out of it. It's not a theoretical exercise from the outset.

It's a fact that people who are in a weakened position, whether physically or mentally, have this perception of the outer world as threatening. Everything that is unexpected or unknown is seen as a potential danger.