I guess George Clooney would be a wonderful silent actor, and Leonardo DiCaprio is such a wonderful actor he certainly could do it.

To me the recognition of the audience is part of the filmmaking process. When you make a movie, it's for them.

I only have one obsession - not to be boring.

If you try to make a silent movie with a normal script and you just pull out the dialogue, you will have big problems with the actors because you will ask them to tell a story that you don't know.

I guess all the directors in France are influenced by Hitchcock, because he's the perfect visual director, in my eyes.

I am unusual for a Frenchman - I have absolutely nothing against the United States.

Sometimes when an actor says something almost perfect, but you know you have to edit it, if you tell them to change something immediately, it will come out great

But I don't think of myself as a foreigner or a Frenchman! I just think of myself as a director. Whether I'm French or Australian or whatever, it's really not important.

I make almost all the decisions on set and have to deal with all the financial aspects.

I want to thank three person: I want to thank Billy Wilder. I want to thank Billy Wilder. And I want to thank Billy Wilder.

French cinema audiences usually don't express anything. Certainly not satisfaction.

If a man isn't willing to take some risk for his opinions, either his opinions are no good or he's no good

We cannot anticipate the moral circumstances under which we will live. And therefore [I refuse] to say that I will not live in a moral circumstance that requires violence.

Your choice to believe and keep covenants will leave a rich legacy of faith for those who follow you.

It gives me more breadth as an actor and as an artist to not be pigeonholed.

Ray Gomez is one of the greatest guitarists of all times!

I was inspired by my life. I was inspired by the lives of many women doctors around me. So [Memoirs of a Woman Doctor ] is a mixture.

Sometimes people come up and they get infatuated with some little brief imagistic poem or something, and they say, "Oh, I really like your Zen poems." And I say, "Which ones are not Zen poems?"

I'm consciously working very hard at not eating.

Learn to trust your instincts. Only something dead goes with the tide. Only something living can go against it.

I don't think of my life as a cliche, but I'm a cliche eccentric. Complete with a strange name - I mean, who's named Val? How many Vals do you know? I mean, really?