You can spend your whole life in France without ever thinking about the Legion.

Africa is no more this poor continent. It's on the march.

When making a film, if I feel nothing in my body, I can't work. I have to touch. I have to feel. I never stop touching.

When you have countries that have a lot of minerals and diamonds and oil and are in business with companies from all over the world - but these companies don't share, really, their profits - this is called post-post-colonial.

I'm not witty.

Making pizza is a great job. All that kneading the dough - everything to do with cooking is wonderful, sensual.

I don't know - music in film, for me, is not another part of a soundtrack; it is something that also helps to approach a character, to foresee the type of image - you see what I mean - it's like a part of the process.

I always thought Vincent Lindon had a sexy body, a body you can trust, a solid body you can lean on.

I always thought of Djibouti as a place where human history hasn't really begun yet - or perhaps it's already over. There's something in the landscape that's stronger than human civilisation. There's no agriculture, for example, and there are live volcanoes.

Marguerite Duras was a very good friend of mine and an intellectual hero. She was also a sort of mother figure. Of course she was an influence.

I'm not rich.

I am not at all interested in theories about cinema. I am only interested in images and people and sound. I am really a very simple person.

For some reason, I have always been interested in the stories of people who are exiled and who are deprived of rights. My main motive to make a film is to keep the society in mind and the hospitality adhered.

There are dozens and dozens of improv classes across the nation, but it really cannot be taught.

What I'm doing in the work I do, I prefer not to just have a series of jokes. It's nice when audiences can connect with the characters as well.

I don't make movies that make fun of anything.

With a documentary, you can cut away, you can do jump cuts, cut to a photograph at any point to bridge two scenes.

'Waiting For Guffman' was different right away from 'Spinal Tap,' because we didn't show the interviewer. That person became invisible immediately. That created a different way of tuning it and ultimately editing it.

The most important thing about my life is this integrity, and you can't lie to yourself.

Some instinct has told me I need to live in a world that isn't consumed with reading about myself or anyone else or someone's opinion about something. I need to be clear of that. It's just healthier for me. I feel happier.

I don't read about myself, and I don't read any magazine that has anything to do with movies or show business.

If you didn't know who I was, if I was to walk out on the street without people knowing who I am, you'd think I'm an accountant or a lawyer.

As an actor, I trust my ear.

I don't know anyone who's ever taken a bus. It's a mysterious form of transportation.