282 Quotes by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

The actors make the film. They’re the ones that take this theoretical movie that’s in your head and make it real. The success of a film is entirely on their shoulders. I admire them, because acting is such a difficult thing to do, and I personally can’t understand it.

I personally can’t handle frivolous violence. I overreact to it.

When I went to university, I finally got exposed to European films, and they had a strong impact on me. I felt those films had a lot of things to say that weren’t getting expressed in the films I was used to seeing.

I like to make films, but the only reason I do is because I’m a very bad musician.

You hear about bombings in other countries, or numbers like “10,000 people died” – you hear that number and you think, “Well, I saw that yesterday in a film, and that didn’t look so bad.” Younger viewers, in particular, lose perspective on reality.

In the United States there’s not a lot of people interested in foreign language films. Every time, it’s more difficult for foreign language films to survive here.

I just wanted to show the migrants as complex humans with flaws and weakness, with good and bad things, and show that they’re parents and family men. I wanted to show them with everything, as they are.

I understand when there’s no money for the arts in the government, but it should maybe pressure private companies to support more filmmakers. These exhibition and distribution companies are huge, and there might be incentives for them to invest more in Mexican cinema.

All my films have always been released in the autumn, maybe because they’re more melancholy to people.