Walter Salles

“I did documentaries for maybe 10 years before I turned to fiction films.”

“The necessity to conceptualise has to come very early on, and defining a vector of development for that film also at the beginning of the process will allow you much more freedom as you go along.”

“On the contrary, I'm a strong believer in the necessity of imperfection coming into the film.”

“There are still 500,000 persons afflicted with leprosy in Latin America, so it is still very much present.”

“That's why I have always admired documentaries, because they open windows that can make you understand much better where you come from, much better than fiction, I think.”

“We all knew the book well because it's the cult book in Latin America. For me, this was a sacred territory. I would not have ventured into it by myself.”