You see me in my most virile moment when you see me doing what I do. When I am directing, a special energy comes upon me. ... It is only when I am doing my work that I feel truly alive. It is like having sex.
When I do things without any explanation, but just with spontaneity ... I can be sure that I am right.
Our minds can shape the way a thing will be because we act according to our expectations.
It is only when I am doing my work that I feel truly alive. It is like having sex.
When I start a picture, I always have a script, but I change it every day. I put in what occurs to me that day out of my imagination. You start on a voyage; you know where you will end up but not what will occur along the way. You want to be surprised.
I make pictures to tell a story, to tell lies, and to amuse.
In 'Roma,' I wanted to get across the idea that underneath Rome today is ancient Rome. So close. I am always conscious of that, and it thrills me. Imagine being in a traffic jam at the Coliseum! Rome is the most wonderful movie set in the world... As was the case with many of my film ideas, it was inspired by a dream.
I am not the kind of director who sits in a chair smoking a cigar talking with a microphone to 10 assistants. I need to move. To touch. To put a painting on a wall. To arrange a set.
All art is autobiographical. The pearl is the oyster's autobiography.
Hype is the awkward and desperate attempt to convince journalists that what you've made is worth the misery of having to review it.
I think television has betrayed the meaning of democratic speech, adding visual chaos to the confusion of voices. What role does silence have in all this noise?
Censorship is advertising paid by the government.
The public has lost the habit of movie-going because the cinema no longer possesses the charm, the hypnotic charisma, the authority it once commanded. The image it once held for us all - that of a dream we dreamt with our eyes open - has disappeared.
Nietzsche claimed that his genius was in his nostrils and I think that is a very excellent place for it to be.
A good opening and a good ending make for a good film provide they come close together.
God may not play dice but he enjoys a good round of Trivial Pursuit every now and again.
A different language is a different vision of life.
I always direct the same film. I cannot distinguish one from the other.
If you see with innocent eyes, everything is divine.
Experience is what you get while looking for something else.
