Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

“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.”

“I think we do good things and bad things, sometimes simultaneously - or they may be the same thing.”

“When you shoot in a room, that's a symmetrical thing that contains you. When there's no contention, the sensation is overwhelming you. That's a challenge, to do that.”

“I think I want to talk about life from the point of view of death.”

“I love Sam Mendes, but I went to see 'Spectre' with my kid, and the opening scene of the Dia de Muertos party, with this kind of tropical music, in downtown Mexico City, with all these people dancing like it's the Rio de Janeiro carnival... I had to laugh.”

“I have always said that innocence is much more powerful than experience.”

“When you taste a mango in the United States, it's just tasteless.”

“Now that we're poisoned with the culture of superheroes, I think it's important to laugh about it.”

“You can better embrace life, you can enjoy it more, when you are conscious that it will end. You bite life.”

“It's famous that comedians have a very dark personal state of mind. I think, in my case, it's the same. The only way to get deep is to have a balance, or a counterbalance.”

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

“I love Eric Clapton.”

“You have to make millions on Friday night, because there are another 600 films waiting behind you, with explosions and everything.”

“I started off writing TV adverts. I saw those as rehearsals for a feature film.”

“When I'm working, I'm insufferable because I get stuck with myself, and suddenly I become obsessive, thinking about how to make something better.”

“I think that my films are basically family stories, beyond the fact that they are global and have political and social commentary.”

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

“I am not a depressive person at all, but I reflect a lot on my life, and life in general, from the perspective of death.”

“I want the camerawork to fit the narrative and tell the story from the point of view of the character, but sometimes, to be interacting with the sensations of the story, you almost become like a ghost, you know? Like, someone that is floating, observing, not really judging what's going on.”

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