I can't imagine a society with absolutely no solidarity. For me, it's a nightmare. And I don't want to live in a place like that.

Sometimes I feel like John Wayne.

The history of colonisation cannot disappear.

Often, women as little girls are sent off on a track for them to live a perfect life and be a perfect woman. Not for boys, who can be themselves with their mood and their temper.

I can be unkind to someone in the street or in the subway - I'm a bad-tempered person - but I'm unable to be unkind to a character. They exist because of me, and I have responsibility for them.

'White Material' is about courage and craziness.

I don't want to be mysterious.

A film takes a lot of time, and yet not enough to share with the people you're making the movie with, I think.

In a way, I feel obliged to respect Jean Rouch because I am told he is very important.

I think working as an assistant was a part of knowing people who like cinema, and to learn from a movie, you have to watch it.

Sometimes bleak is good. Sometimes bleak is necessary. Some part of life is always bleak.

It's not that I don't like words. There's sometimes no need for words.

I hate family pressures and family responsibilities. I'm more comfortable as a stranger. I always imagined I could just live in a hotel. I'm afraid of family.

Filmmaking creates a sort of - trust, maybe. It has led me to a group of people I feel good with. We have something in common because of film, when otherwise we might have nothing.

A father who sees his daughter leave in the arms of another man does not feel the same as a mother. It is heartrending for her, too. But it is not the same.

I'm not a very brave person.

I've experienced love and ambition and desire in my life, but never in the same way as in a family.

A career for me is something like building a bridge. You know, where to put the lifts. You have a plan. I have a blueprint for each film, but not for my life.

Growing up outside your own country makes you feel that you don't belong when you return, so you feel free to make friends with whomever you like.

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.

I have no relationship to the French bourgeoisie. I don't like connecting with them.

I don't think I see the way bodies move in any special way. People say I do, but everybody moves. I don't see why all of a sudden I'm a specialist in the way bodies move.

I hate the idea of growing accustomed to someone and being faithful.

The only thing I find interesting is self-interest.