La Haine - first of all, it was the story of friendship. I was very close with Mathieu Kassovitz; he was somebody I met in the nights of Paris. And the hip-hop scene and all that... You know, it was very much about doing our own thing, and some of the subject matter was so close to what we knew and the people we were hanging out with.

The minute I started being recognised, I became much more discreet.

To me, Sheitan movie is the answer to all the problems we have in France concerning immigration. That is a fake problem; people can actually work together and do something very interesting out of it.

Blood, especially fake, and guns, this is bullshit. It works in the movie, but on set it doesn't work for me.

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.

If kids really made all the parents better, there wouldn't be crazy kids in the world.

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.