Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu Quotes

Directing non-actors is difficult. Directing actors in a foreign language is even more difficult. Directing non-actors in a language that you yourself don't understand is the craziest thing you can possibly think of.

Life and death are illusions. We are in a constant state of transformation.

Really, Mexico City has always been this big, complex monster of a city that has always had real problems and needs, and I've always found my way through it in different ways.

In hotels, every time I make a reservation and they never find my name, they never can pronounce it; it's so long, and sometimes they confuse.

Look, I'm no purist - there are good superhero films, and there are bad ones.

The cavemen, when they saw the antelopes, they had to scratch them on to the caves because they needed to express the immediacy of what they were being affected by - and I love that. That is why I do what I do. I need to express myself.

That incredible bubble and high expectations built at festivals can work against a film.

We want to conquer the world and have 1,000 likes, 1 million likes, but at the same time, we are depressed. We are lonely, but we have 10,000 followers. We are all bipolar.

The way I put together images is a reactive art.

From the time we open our eyes, we live in a Steadicam form, and the only editing is when we talk about our lives or remember things.

Filmmaking can give you everything, but at the same time, it can take everything from you.

Cinema is an infinite medium, so we should take advantage of it, I think.

My responsibility is to make a film and find my dramatic language; I don't have any political or social responsibility.

I love the three-act theory. It works and works beautifully. But you don't necessarily have to structure a story that way: Cortazar and Borges wrote in different structural styles.

I have been very lucky to have final cut in all my films; everything that is wrong in them is my fault.

For me, the most important thing that I have to accomplish is to be a good father. That's the most difficult challenge of my life. That's the most important thing for me, more than films.

I never deny a true experience in one shot.

To make a film is easy; to make a good film is war. To make a very good film is a miracle.

Americans easily forget that the air they breathe is the same as those in Europe or Africa or Asia; it's the same air as Jesus breathed. I would like them to remember that connection.

I think when you turn 50 you get a little melancholic in a way.

I'm very curious, I guess, as a human being.

I know how to work with people. I've worked with the same people for 10 years. I'm not that kind of auteur. I hear ideas.

I can be unbearable sometimes asking for so many takes.

I've learned to lose with a smile on my face. That's what the Oscar teaches you.

'21 Grams' is only one story told by three different points of view, but they are really physically connected - literally, with the heart.

The expected vertical line of Ikiru's narrative breaks when Kurosawa does a flash-forward in the middle of the film.

I learned with 'Birdman' that it's liberating when you just lose yourself and go after something that terrifies you. The experience was so good.

I'm overwhelmed by the pain in the world; I'm affected by the news very much, and adding that to my work was becoming a little bit too much.

'Russian Ark,' I adore - I almost cried at the end of that film, it's so beautiful.

I am not a depressive person at all.

I have never met a superhero, but why are we so obsessed with superheroes?

Antonio Sanchez is from Mexico City. I met him at a Pat Metheny concert. He did a solo, and I thought, 'This is an octopus man!'

Many Mexican directors are scared to shoot in Mexico City, which is why there are many stories in Mexican cinema about little rural towns, or set a hundred years ago.

Two words guided the making of 'Babel' for me: 'dignity' and 'compassion.' These things are normally forgotten in the making of a lot of films. Normally there is not dignity because the poor and dispossessed in a place like Morocco are portrayed as mere victims, or the Japanese are portrayed as cartoon figures with no humanity.

We are the only alive creatures that are mortals; the animals are immortal, which is why they live stupidly. We are the only creatures that know that we will die, but that is a gift. It's important because we know we have to take advantage and squeeze life and understand why we're here in the first place.

When you see things upside down, the ego can be extraordinarily funny; it's absurd. But it's tragic at the same time.

I didn't have a normal academic career. I never studied cinema. I learned from life.

It's more enjoyable for me to know that life is finite. Knowing that, I would like to go to a party. When you get to the holidays, if you think that the holidays will be forever, you just take it for granted. But, if you know that you have just three days at the beach, you will be so happy to be there every day.

The corporation and the hedge funds have a hold on Hollywood, and they all want to make money on anything that signifies cinema.

People talk about the pain of defeat, but I think defeat has a lot of value. I think the wound of victory can be even more damaging than defeat. Very few people really know how to win.

It's not anthrax or terrorism or AIDS that is the worst ill in our world: The most horrible disease in the world is hate.

Too much knowledge and analysis can be paralysis.

I see only one requirement you have to have to be a director or any kind of artist: rhythm. Rhythm, for me, is everything. Without rhythm, there's no music. Without rhythm, there's no cinema. Without rhythm, there's no architecture.

I really try, at least consciously, not to be cynical or ironic.

Fear of the unknown is a great creative partner.

I do think that the emotional weight of 'Biutiful' has blinded some viewers to the beauty and complexity of the film.

My cinema is an extension of myself. A sort of life-testimony of my vital experience, with my few virtues and my numerous limitations.

Good directors don't answer questions with their work. They generate debate and create discussion.

Time starts out as a notion. But after you turn fifty, time is not a notion anymore but a fact that you start feeling clearly, and in a way, it pushes you to become present in the present.

I have a notebook, and I know what decisions will be made in pre-production. Everything is pre-determined in the pre-production period. I visually design the whole thing, and I know when things will happen.