Eisenstein was a good editor. I was trained as a film editor, and I've no doubt that the editor is key to a film.

There's no such thing as history, only historians. That's how we know about the past.

We are all united by the phenomenon that we have a body and that body is universally the same, more or less. If we lose sight of that perspective, everything can desperately suffer.

The Sistine Chapel is an extraordinary work of education - it lays out all the early books of the Bible.

We have to move away from the concept of screening in cinemas. This can be achieved with the new technologies. I enjoy my films and the fact that I can include you in them as well. Cinema is only a small part of a much greater phenomenon. We transcend the barriers of culture. DVDs' image quality and longevity provide us with new prospects. They are a powerful medium. I think they were invented especially for me.

I've always been fascinated by maps and cartography. A map tells you where you've been, where you are, and where you're going -- in a sense it's three tenses in one.

The best painting is totally non-narrative. It doesn't have to tell you a story.