“Actors need bricks to play with, and in fact we rejected all the improvised fragments we had made without a plan. Improvisation without a plan is like tennis without tennis balls.”

“Basically, I'm afraid of everything in life, except filmmaking.”

“Far be it from me to force anyone into either chess or dressage, but if you choose to do so yourself, in my opinion there is only one way: follow the rules.”

“I always do something that I've never done before.”

“I am not very tough with raising my children, but you can argue that to be more tough will help your children.”

“I grew up in a culturally radical home, where strong emotions were forbidden.”

“I had an almost fetishistic attraction to film technology.”

“I know that I cannot be with a person for three hours without saying at least ten things that would kill me.”

“I sit there pouring out my woes year after year, coming up with one enormity after another about my mother and the way she let me down; but it doesn't make me any the less fearful.”

“I think it's important that we all try to give something to this medium, instead of just thinking about what is the most efficient way of telling a story or making an audience stay in a cinema.”

“I would say that I am a poor Christian; I'm not a believer. It was this idea very early in my life that life on Earth, nature or man could not be a creation of a merciful God.”

“If one devalues rationality, the world tends to fall apart.”

“If you want to provoke, you should provoke someone who is stronger than you, otherwise you are misusing your power.”

“I'm happy that I'm alive. I feel like someone coming back from Vietnam, you know; I'm sure that later on I'll start killing people in a square somewhere, but right now, I just feel happy to be alive.”

“I'm having a vacation, and it's so beautiful, and maybe I'll never get another film idea in my life.”

“It's always been a lie that it's difficult to make films.”

“More than anything, there are more images in evil. Evil is based far more on the visual, whereas good has no good images at all.”

“My films are about ideals that clash with the world. Every time it's a man in the lead, they have forgotten about the ideals. And every time it's a woman in the lead, they take the ideals all the way.”

“Only a fool does not fear actors, but you can't beat them, and if you can't beat them, join them, as they say. As I've got older I've become very interested in that part of the work.”

“Political correctness kills discussion.”

“That's the great thing about entering a convent: There are things that you simply can't do, so you don't have to worry about them.”

“When I show a film at a festival, I am showing myself. Everything is at stake for me.”

“When I was in film school, it was said that all good films were characterised by some form of humour.”

“When I was younger, I was fascinated by David Bowie, for example. he had created an entire myth around himself. It was as important as his music.”

“You could say that when you introduce humour to your work, you also step back a little from it. You create a distance.”

“You know, I really do have some morals. I do actually care about people. And I do have a political standpoint.”