Quotes from Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Millions of Mexicans leave their kids in order to take care of other kids. That's a very painful thing.

I have a notebook, and I know what decisions will be made in pre-production. Everything is pre-determined in the pre-production period. I visually design the whole thing, and I know when things will happen.

There was so much fear after 9/11, and that fear caused people to make the wrong decisions.

I can't imagine David Lean justifying why he went to the desert to shoot 'Lawrence of Arabia.'

It's different if you're self-fed by a culture such as the U.S. where it's so rich, you don't have to look outside. Everything's already there. But when you grow up in the desert, you have to be looking all over for inspiration.

I can't understand the conditions of a corporate product being designed and getting millions. I admire it, it's great, but I don't know how to do that.

I started developing 'The Revenant' before 'Birdman.'

I've learned to lose with a smile on my face. That's what the Oscar teaches you.

When I talk about sad things, I talk about sad things.

Life and death are illusions. We are in a constant state of transformation.

Fear is the condom of life. It doesn't allow you to enjoy things.

I can't understand the conditions of a corporate product being designed and getting millions. I admire it, it's great, but I don't know how to do that. I have to have the wheel.

I have to have the wheel. It's given me an opportunity to experience and explore things.

Cinema is a mirror by which we often see ourselves.

While 'Babel' is a foreign-language film in some countries, in others, it is a local film.

My duty is to make probable the improbable. If I tell you how I did it, I will ruin your experience.

To direct actors is difficult. To direct actors in another language is more difficult, but directing non-actors in another language is one of the craziest things that I have done and one of the most rewarding experiences I have had.

The emotions of the actors are better when they understand the chronological factors that are adding to the story.

If art doesn't move people, then art has failed.

I'm telling the same story in every film.

I've listened to music all my life. I've always felt that music tells more stories sometimes than films, with more possibilities. Every time you listen to them, songs bring different images and moods - depending on where you are in your life, you can listen to a song, and it means something different.

I didn't have a normal academic career. I never studied cinema. I learned from life.

It's more enjoyable for me to know that life is finite. Knowing that, I would like to go to a party.

For me, it's not about masochism to talk about death. For me, it's about observing life through death, from the last point of it.