I think that religion is an integral part of human needs, but the question also is how you understand religion.

If you go with the principle, you should go with the principle. If I really saw the subject very differently than ten years ago, I would have done a different movie.

Film is 24 lies per second at the service of truth, or at the service of the attempt to find the truth.

Never say no. It always depends on what's possible. I don't care so much where it is; it's what I want to do that matters.

Personally, I can't stand violence. In any standard American mainstream movie, there's 20 times more violence than in any one of my films, so I don't know why those directors aren't asked why they're such specialists for violence.

There are really two types of laughter on the part of the spectator. There is the laughter of recognition - which means seeing things you're familiar with and laughing at yourself. But there's also hysterical laughter - a way of dealing with the things we see that upset us.

I try to get closer to reality, to get close to the contradictions. The cinema world can be a real world rather than a dream world.