If there is an auteur who influenced me - and there is only one - that is Charlie Chaplin. And he never won an Oscar.

When one goes to see Modern Times, for instance, one understands much more about socialism than listening to the man who was then head of the Socialist movement in Italy.

The very fact of seeking specialization is probably what makes America so great in these two hundred years. But also, the sensation that somebody who wants to understand America doesn't really need to visit it much.

It's difficult to find new solicitations, new expressions. But this is talking about filmmaking. Cinema.

I can't see America any other way than with a European's eyes. It fascinates me and terrifies me at the same time.

Probably the greatest writer of westerns himself was Homer. His character were never all good or all bad. They're half and half, these characters, as all human beings are.

I had never thought of making a western even as I was making it.