I have made an art form of the interview. The French are the best interviewers, despite their addiction to the triad, like all Cartesians.

I prefer people who rock the boat to people who jump out

[The movies] make the sort of comment only a novel can make, an allusion to the world in which people live, the psychological and economic motivations, the influences of the period in which they lived.

In my opinion, there are two things that can absolutely not be carried to the screen: the realistic presentation of the sexual act and praying to God.

Cinema as a means of expression fascinates me.

Personally, I don't like a girlfriend to have a husband. If she'll fool her husband, I figure she'll fool me.

n Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.