I believe in imagination. I was a worker when I was 17. Between 17 and 21, I was a worker in the telephone company and imagination saved my life.

It's always more interesting and more difficult to make something positive than negative. To be negative is very easy.

For me, the most important word in cinema is the word freedom. For example, in Europe, we've got freedom, we've got the final cut and that's something which is marvellous.

I like the cinema of people like Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton. I am not keen on trying to reproduce reality - for that you should do documentaries.

It's always been pretty easy for me to exercise my imagination. The other part of the brain, the one that does mathematics, is a nightmare for me. It doesn't work at all.

I've never made any concessions, so I am 100% responsible for my films. This makes me feel very proud.

All day my mind drifts off into fantasies and little stupid jokes.

In the States, I learned to fight for every idea. Sometimes, a director has to be a tyrant to keep the quality.

If you make the right choice in casting, your work is nearly done already. You don't have to spend a lot of time directing the actors, because they're so well suited to the parts.

I like looking back at people's faces in the dark. I like noticing details that no one else sees. But I hate it in the old American movies when drivers don't watch the road.

In general, I have some precise ideas about everything, because the film is completed in my head before we ever start shooting. With casting, I am always present, even for the smallest character.

It’s like I became so obsessed with doing things right, I forgot to enjoy them.

I’d rather be a fool than afraid.

The closer you can get to your setting and to primary sources, the more authentic your history is going to be.

So where do you start when you want to start your life again?

Slave rebellions, especially the [1791] Haitian Revolution, had an ongoing effect on the ways in which abolitionists talked about ending slavery.

They were recorded without processed cheese. Listen to old '50s records. The style may be dated, but the recording isn't.

Since my father died and I stopped trusting my mother, no one else's arms have made me feel this safe.

To beat terrorism, there's only one candidate who can do it and it's Hillary Clinton.

The best leaders... almost without exception and at every level, are master users of stories and symbols.

We can fight the global economy with a strong local economy.