What is more simple than to tell to a little boy, 'This is not the truth, it is a game?'

Only comedians can talk about death, life, God and Virgin Mary. If I was a tragic actor, I couldn't allow myself. But with this accent I can do it. I can talk with death in person because I am a clown. Yes. And I am proud to be a clown - very much.

To be in front of an audience and pretending, and to lie, this is the principle of acting.

My mother and my father went to the cinema for the first time when I made my first movie in 1978.

My duty is to try to reach beauty. Cinema is emotion. When you laugh you cry.

There is nothing more beautiful in the world, enough to lose one's head. A sunset with a long nose, a starry sky that lies, a river searching for its father, a beautiful blue forest. It makes you laugh, it makes you cry, it's very mean, generous, magical, universal, a picture of freedom, of unrestrained desire to live, of pain and joy - a joy so powerful and sweet that it restores the souls in every spot on earth. The story of Pinocchio - nothing more beautiful in the world.

The first movie I saw - and I don't know if it influenced me - was 'Ben Hur'.