I think everybody dreamt somehow to make a film in Hollywood, you know.

First of all, to defend my work, I had to believe that I am doing a totally silly, stupid, innocent comedy.

The Czech movies, the quality movies, are trying to show the life in the country as it is, in an entertaining way, while in America, the majority of movies are wonderful fairy tales.

Definitely it would be foolish to try and make my Czech films here in America, as foolish as it is when some Czech filmmakers try to make movies of America in Czechoslovakia. It was always abysmal stuff.

You really see life around the principals to be as important as the main, principal actors. That's what cinéma vérité taught me - that it's not a question of having a main character, a great actor, and the rest is unimportant. Every detail, every face in the crowd is important.

For me, speaking is work. It's not like when you breathe.

You know what happened, you know, in 1938: France, England, you know, just sold out Czechoslovakia to Hitler.