For me, Fellini was like a watermelon. It is there. A watermelon cannot die.

Fellini belongs to nature.

I could have made a small film and kept all the money from 'Life is Beautiful'. Instead, I spent more money than I had on 'Pinocchio', a very risky film.

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

Dante Alighieri was not only a Christian poet or a priest, he was a man. He was a real poet. We can understand that the goal of Divine Comedy is beauty. You don't need also to understand Italian or to know Italian, because when Dante's writing, when we recite Dante out loud, it explodes a cosmos of illumination like to recite music, a symphony.

Fellini and Bunuel changed my life for me, they are my favourites. If it is true that movies are dreams, both of them, Fellini and Bunuel were shooting in a dream way.

It's me, it's my habit to perform live onstage every four, five years. In Italy, it's my habit.