What I don't like so much is to give explanations about people's behaviour... I'm not interested in making conclusions. I would never think about myself or anyone else, 'Well, this happened, this happened, this happened, so this must be the result.' It doesn't work like that with me.

My grandfather died when I was 12, but I remember the sorrow of my mother. Even now, she's an old lady, but when she speaks about her father, she looks young. A love like that is undefeated, you know?

I think cinema is linked to literature by a lot of social ways. Our brains are full of literature - my brain is.

I didn't foresee my career. Things happen.

I was never very interested in my own experience, I think, in fact, if my films have a common link, maybe it's being a foreigner - it's common for people who are born abroad - they don't know so well where they belong.

I'm tiny. I'm small.

You don't grow up naive in Africa.

I've heard it said many times, 'Let's work on the look of the film,' but that doesn't work with me.

I long to make films. I'm dying to be inside the next film. I always hope there will be another film.

My films are always looked at strangely, and there is nothing I can do about it.

I think a film noir demands a beginning and an end.

When I was doing 'Beau Travail,' I listened a lot to Benjamin Britten.

I listen to a lot of different kinds of music.

I've never seen a world where only men were responsible for the violence, and the women were innocent. They go together. Men and women are a violent mixture.

Life is not better and more moral than it was in the '50s. It's just the same.

I'm not a tacky person, I think.

Shoes have a meaning.

I think you cannot make films without choosing everything.

I hate the victimization of women, always.

The camera is not your eye, and it's not the eye of the audience. I don't think it's my eye, either. It belongs to the film.

I'm a very sinister person.

In Kurosawa's films, the tragedy is that this strong man was crushed by corruption or mistrust at the end.

I have very strong relationships with my actors when I'm shooting. When you love an actor's work, you always feel you have to go further, and you make several films together. One film just gives you time to get acquainted.

What I like is the idea of a group, even if it's just two people - the idea of solitude within a group.