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1. Music in this film is a very important part.
2. I played piano, I learned a lot about music.
3. I just think the word interview, although it is the view between two people exchanged, became a sort of cliche. You ask questions and the other one answers.
4. First love is first love, first marriage is first marriage, disappointment is disappointment.
5. When I was a young actor, in my first apartment, the first thing I bought was a Steinway piano. There was no bed at first. I slept on the floor.
6. I think there’s a poet who wrote once a tragedy by Shakespeare, a symphony by Beethoven and a thunderstorm are based on the same elements. I think that’s a beautiful line.
7. And it’s interesting, but I’m always interested in the story behind the story.
8. A conversation goes sometimes into personal things and that’s nicer. You look to each other and you have a different picture, you get into a relationship.
9. When you have the cast, the sets, the lights, an opera takes on its own life. I’m not one of those directors who marches in with a set of plans.
10. As an actor, I was a fantastic rebel. Then I became a directorial rebel and understood rebels from both sides. So now I am a friend who gives advice — not one who knows more, necessarily, but who shares ideas.
11. I did have fun, for example, in The Black Hole which was very popular among youngsters.
12. Directing is like meeting a woman. You don’t know her, but something strikes you, and then you just have to go into it.
13. We should never forget that Hollywood was built by Europeans, and the old Jewish boys from Eastern Europe.
14. And in reality, I don’t think it’s a real documentary. It’s more a story of her life. It’s a story of survival. It’s a story of the time in which she lived. The story of success and failure.
15. To be honest, I don’t think I’m an actor. I’m a creator — or try to be.
16. Except here it’s more power, more energy, younger and also in Europe it’s still not only entertainment. Theater or films are looked at as a moral institution. That’s why maybe they’re so poetic. Here it’s clear entertainment.
17. Well, I did Marlene 15 years ago and that’s in the style. It’s somehow similar and not similar because Marlene was much more aggressive, funny and sad.
18. I’ll never forget Spencer Tracy. He only worked from nine to one — then from three to five again.
19. My mother was an actress and a director, as well. And my father was a playwright and poet.
20. Everything you do has certain significance, a certain weight. I think there is a film in everyone.