"I did not have a reputation to defend."

"I still had some honor... I still have some now."

"Normal love isn't interesting. I assure you that it's incredibly boring."

"Cinema should make you forget you are sitting in a theater."

"I want people to go to the movies. I am the man of the spectacle. I'm playing."

"My films are the expression of momentary desires. I follow my instincts, but in a disciplined way."

"Whenever I get happy, I always have a terrible feeling."

"I don't really know what is shocking. When you tell the story of a man who is beheaded, you have to show how they cut off his head. If you don't, it's like telling a dirty joke and leaving out the punch line."

"I never made a film which fully satisfied me."

"You have to show violence the way it is. If you don't show it realistically, then that's immoral and harmful. If you don't upset people, then that's obscenity."

"I can only say that whatever my life and work have been, I'm not envious of anyone-and this is my biggest satisfaction."

"If you have a great passion it seems that the logical thing is to see the fruit of it, and the fruit are children."

"In Paris, one is always reminded of being a foreigner. If you park your car wrong, it is not the fact that it's on the sidewalk that matters, but the fact that you speak with an accent."