- My movies are not movies of answers but of questions.
- In Hollywood you always feel a bit like a hake. The publicists march people up and down in front of you and they interview you ... You feel like the turbot and the sea-bream go by, and you're the hake.
- I don't consider myself a dark person. I just like to play with dark characters.
- [on Open Your Eyes (1997)] I started developing the idea in the middle of a fever. I had a cold and spent a few days in bed and it was there that I started developing the idea.
- [on Vanilla Sky (2001)] I felt very honored and very excited. It's been weird because watching the same story done with a completely different tone, it was so weird. I remember when I saw the film for the first time, I kept thinking, "Well, I would have done this differently." But then I realized, "Well, of course, I've already done it!" So that's the point that's interesting to me. He [Cameron Crowe] really made his film. It's like the same song with two different voices. That's what I appreciate about it. Plus the buttload of money.
- I don't dream too much, or I don't remember what it is I dream. But I guess that the world of perception, and the world of perspective, and the world of desire, interests me. And that has to do with dreams. And actually, going to the movies is like dreaming, isn't it?
- [on Agora (2009)] It hasn't made all the money that it should. In Spain, it's done very well and in Italy it's doing very well but I don't think it's going to be a hit in the United States. We made the movie just before the financial crisis and in these times people just want comedy or horror or action. Agora is not that movie.
- [on Agora (2009)] It's not an easy film. It looks like an epic film but it's not a traditional epic. It's about astronomy and it's also this weird mixture of history and science - and you expect her to have an affair. It's a movie that challenges the audience in terms of reasoning and trying to get into the story. I kept saying the movie is about astronomy and I wanted to express concepts that we study in school - science, mathematics - that don't show how fascinating the topic is. I wanted to translate man's fascination with the pursuit of knowledge. I wanted to show astronomy and those who study it in the most appealing way. Those are the real heroes of the movie.
- [on Regression (2015)] A few years ago, I wanted to go back to the genre I started with, which was horror. I thought of the greatest movies I've seen - Rosemary's Baby (1968), The Exorcist (1973), The Omen (1976) - so I thought I should try to do something about the Devil. Then, I abandoned the idea because I couldn't find an interesting approach. We couldn't find something realistic enough and something that would allow me to express a meaning. At some point, I read about satanic ritual abuse which was something very real, something phenomenal that happened in North America. and I was very, very interested in the subject, because that among other things allowed me to explore the idea of the mind and how the mind plays with us. So, the whole movie became really a thriller and a procedural. I really love learning things when I make a film, and what I learnt with Regression is that our mind is much more fragile that we would think.
- [on working with Ethan Hawke on Regression (2015)] I really wanted to work with Ethan. I've been following his career for many years. I always admired him. He did Linklater's trilogy which I loved. He's plainly and totally American, but as he's lived in Europe he knows the world he's living in. He's written a couple of works, he's an intellectual. I thought that he could really understand what I wanted to convey with this movie and that he could be a good ally. We just sent him the script. One of the things that he asked me when we first met was, "Who is this guy? I don't have much information about him." Then, I challenged him to try to create a character with not many elements, to try to not have the back story of the detective, but just try to convey him from his interaction with the rest of the characters in the movie.
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