I love being bad at something and getting better at it.

At this school I was allowed to learn things which interested me: French, History, lots of Poetry by heart, and above all Riding and Swimming. The impression of those years makes a pleasant picture in my mind, in strong contrast to my earlier schoolday memories.

I wanted to know. I asked a lot of questions and she would say, "Read, read."…So she inspired me a great deal.

Ultimately, my research was curiosity driven, which kept me active even in low periods.

Truffaut, Rohmer, Claude Chabrol, they were the great directors of the Nouvelle Vague. They found the freedom to make exactly the films they wanted. Chabrol was important because he was able to make very strong portraits of women and very complex portraits of women. He was very clever and he had a lot of joy and pleasure. He didn’t have some big theories about his work, he just enjoyed making films. I try to work like that.

Very often I do a first [draft] and I give it to friends. I ask them to read it, to give me their suggestions; what they think, what they understand, what works or not for them. I work again and again, and I don’t stop working until the shoot. And very often during the shoot, I change the script.

I just want to go on walking, you know? I like to continue my work of movies and just go on with the capacity and opportunity to do exactly what I want. To stay free.

I didn’t think anything actually [before],” he nods. “And now I ask many questions. Because I don’t know what I will do in such a situation.

No, I’m afraid of nothing, actually. Maybe there are some genres that I would not feel uncomfortable with. I’m not sure I’d be able to do a western or a science-fiction film, but you never know.

No. You don't have to have rules. If you have rules—you know in cinema you have to be very pragmatic.