The most important question for me when I begin working on a film is where to start. For a book, what makes you convinced there is a story that is worthwhile?

But I think that the spirit of protectionism would be the grave of European cinema. You cannot protect something by building a fence around it and thinking that this will help it survive.

In fact, it is amazing how much European films - Italian, French, German and English - have recovered a certain territory of the audience in their countries over the last few years.

The culture of independent film criticism has totally gone down the drain and this seems to come with the territory of the consumer age that we are now living in.

In books they don't have deleted scenes, like with DVDs. You could have your deleted scene in a book as well!

I sometimes feel fiction is the ideal preservation for real memories. Fiction is such a good place to keep things.

Pina Bausch's motto was "Dance, otherwise we are lost." She really meant it, that dance was her answer to life and to the troubles and to the problems that can arise. That was her way to deal with everything, to dance.