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.

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

When I first saw a Fellini movie, I came out of the movie theatre and decided to become a lawyer! I thought to myself, it's impossible to make something so beautiful!

Dante Alighieri is a universal poet, and great creators, they are writing for everybody always. Every single verse is very moving, and the beauty - if we don't understand, we just stay listening to the sound and it's like hearing music.

To laugh or cry is the most beautiful thing in the world

The exquisite truth is to believe in something that maybe you know is a fiction, but you believe in it willingly.

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