Quotes

[on acting] Shakespeare once wrote that "the whole world is a stage". Bob Hoskins once claimed to never have taken an acting lesson in his life and believes in the talent to be "all natural". They are both not far from the truth. Practically everyone acts almost daily in life without even noticing it. If you hate your boss, but pretend to like him, you're an actor. If you don't like your mother-in-law, but pretend to like her, you're an actor. If you don't like a present given to you by your beloved one but pretend to like it, you're an actor. That's because being truthful is actually very inconvenient.

[on Vegetarianism] It would be ideal if everyone would be a vegetarian. But that is almost impossible to achieve because it is a huge shift for most people. I myself am a partial-vegetarian. And being a partial-vegetarian is an easy first step with more appeal than suddenly switching entirely from the previous diet.

[on Humor] Humor is one of the best things in life. Even at times when I was depressed and sad, some comedies still managed to cheer me up and make me laugh. Yet, truly good humor is very scarce.

[on reality shows] Strange how documentaries about animals are lovely but a fair share of reality shows about celebrities are not. Some previous reality shows were so intolerable that I thought someone should have called for an emergency session of the UN Security Council.

There is no such thing as a "good" or "bad nation". There are only good or bad individuals.

[on Steven Spielberg] ...if you watch his films with an open mind, you have to admit that he made at least 10 great films. In Duel (1971) and Jaws (1975) he reached almost Hictchockian intensity of suspense, Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) are a refreshingly intelligent science-fiction film. I am not very fond of Indiana Jones but Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) was amazing, Jurassic Park (1993) is one of the rare great movies about dinosaurs, in Schindler's List (1993) he transmitted the horrors of the Holocaust at a very personal level to the audience, Saving Private Ryan (1998) and Minority Report (2002) showed him in his dark edition, etc. Yet, it does not work at all when he tries to be sugary or make a comedy.

[on 3D] A miracle of seven days.

Dostoevsky and Tolstoy are better than Shakespeare.

As a director, I soon found out that it does not matter how much you cram into a film, but how little...Yet with meaning.