If the guy behind the camera is not good, the pictures are bad. It's still you, and it's the same lines and everything, but it doesn't work.

When you see violence in movies in general, it's very quick and painless, which isn't what it's like.

Good guys need to be a little dirty otherwise they're just boring.

It was like a dream to me to suddenly get into the market with that kind of movie, like La Haine. It actually created my identity as an actor, that thing.

I didn't want to be part of that tradition of French cinema that wasn't really watched by the people of my age. I didn't really care to be in the last André Téchiné or Claude Chabrol movie, even though some of them are really interesting. For me, it was much more important to work with Mathieu Kassovitz or Gaspar Noé. It was for me a question of identity.

I used to be more self-conscious about style because when you're younger, you want to exist, you want to show everything you do.

I think life is short, and you can't spend time doing things just to be on set to reassure yourself that people are not going to forget about you.