I was writing poems when I was young, you know, because my father was a poet, so it was absolutely normal to follow my father.

I left the ending ambiguous, because that is the way life is.

I don't film messages. I let the post office take care of those.

I don't think you can in any way export culture with guns or tanks.

If New York is the Big Apple, tonight Hollywood is the Big Nipple.

I accept all interpretations of my films. The only reality is before the camera. Each film I make is kind of a return to poetry for me, or at least an attempt to create a poem.

A dolly move is a moral commitment.

A monoculture is not only Hollywood, but Americans trying to export democracy.

As a loyal believer in the Auteur Theory I first felt editing was but the logical consequence of the way in which one shoots. But, what I learned is that it is actually another writing.

Film students should stay as far away from film schools and film teachers as possible. The only school for the cinema is the cinema.

I remember being young in the 1960s. We had a great sense of the future, a great big hope. This is what is missing in the youth today. This being able to dream and to change the world.

When you confront, you save yourself of disillusionment.

All the best secrets are told at night.

But comedy I'd love to do as much as humanly possible.

The original writer is not he who refrains from imitating others, but he who can be imitated by none.

I think the lion, besides the elephant, was the one animal that I just started thinking about so much.

Art is a necessity - an essential part of our enlightenment process. We cannot, as a civilized society, regard ourselves as being enlightened without the arts.

People will let you down in this life, promises will be broken, you should expect less of others and trust more in yourself.

Don't be anything you don't want to be, always be yourself.

We put our fingers in the eyes of those who doubt that Libya is ruled by anyone other than its people.

Music, love, death. Certainly a triangle of sorts; maybe even an eternal one. "The only people who can see the whole picture," he murmured, "are the ones who step out of the frame."