When I came for the first time to the United States, visiting, I was absolutely fascinated by New York.

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

Communists love to make films about composers, because composers compose music and don't talk subversive things.

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

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.

So I left with Jean Claude and went to Paris, so when the Russians came to Prague, I was in Paris.

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.