My mother's father was from Brazil - a painter, and not a famous one - and was always broke. But he was a free spirit, a great grandfather.

Filmmaking is to me very similar to being in a café somewhere in Paris and looking at the people walking by.

I always scout locations first. The apartments, the railway tracks, the café, the canal - I figure out the geography of the film.

I'm an anxious person. What I like best is to smoke cigarettes and listen to music. A perfect day for me is a day with coffee, cigarettes, and music, to quote Jim Jarmusch.

Freedom is not having a big budget.

I don't think I make genre movies. There is a certain type of violence in my films but I think I have my own genre because I made it happen like that.

Start with scout locations first.

'White Material' is about courage and craziness.

She had one of those goofy smiles that made you wonder if she was too stupid to know that life sucks most of the time.

Just because the economy is down, doesn't mean that your spirit has to be down with it.

A little one shall become a thousand and a small one a strong nation.

CalArts was incredible for me. It's a school that I rave about and constantly want to give back to.

The legend of the jungle heritage and the evolution of man as a hunting carnivore has taken root in man's mind ... He may even believe that equal pay will do something terrible to his gonads.

It is more difficult to manipulate with film than, for instance, video. The problem with video is that it gives you a thousand possibilities.

When you're rotten about yourself, you become rotten to everyone else, even those you love.

By the fall a poison was handed to mankind through a woman [Eve], by the Redemption man was given salvation also through a woman [Mary].

I'm sick of all these knights in shining armor parts, I want to do something worthwhile like plays and films that have something to say.

The dominant mood of contemporary American culture is the self-celebration of the peasantry.