Irony is a great tool to deal with things. It’s an intellectualization, a way to go above things, which can work. – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
‘Russian Ark,’ I adore – I almost cried at the end of that film, it’s so beautiful. – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
When you are shooting in a conventional way, you put nets around yourself. It’s very hard to fall and hit the ground. You can always manipulate things to make it not embarrassing. If the scene is a little bit bad, you can polish it or even take it out. You can hide your mistakes. – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
At a very young age, I was influenced enormously by Julio Cortazar or Carlos Fuentes. In that literature, there’s always an exploration of different perspectives, points of view. – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
I have always considered myself to be spiritual in a way that has less to do with religion and more with an awareness that you have, and the consciousness you have of being alive and the consciousness that you will be dead. – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Millions of Mexicans leave their kids in order to take care of other kids. That’s a very painful thing. – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
I think that in order to be a film director, one has to be a warrior who shouldn’t be defeated by the daily onslaught of problems. – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
The corporation and the hedge funds have a hold on Hollywood, and they all want to make money on anything that signifies cinema. – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
When I was about to turn 50, I went into a kind of personal revision and observed my own priorities and what led those priorities in my life. And many things that, in a way, were profound. – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
I think Kurosawa was one of the first storytelling geniuses who began to change the narrative structure of films. – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
I’m scared of horses, and I don’t know how to shoot them, but that’s what excites me. After 40 years old, if you don’t do some things that really terrify you, I don’t think they’re worth doing. – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
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. – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
I can’t imagine David Lean justifying why he went to the desert to shoot ‘Lawrence of Arabia.’ – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
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. – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
I think that when we wrestle with death… we start fearing life, because then we come to terms with something that is inevitable. – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
If you stretch tragedy, it will always become comedy. That’s the comedy that I like. – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
I learned with ‘Birdman’ that it’s liberating when you just lose yourself and go after something that terrifies you. – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Directing non-actors is difficult. Directing actors in a foreign language is even more difficult. Directing non-actors in a language that you yourself don’t understand is the craziest thing you can possibly think of. – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
The problem with the screenplay is that it’s not literature, and it’s not a film. It’s a very weird, technical kind of blueprint that will be absolutely transformed into something else that is not that, you know? Honestly, a screenplay is no literature. – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
I have always been very wary of what would happen when I die. I feel I would die every day, and that thought sometimes made me more aware that I am alive. – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
I like so many different directors: Scorsese, Coppola, Cassavetes, Jarmusch, Gus van Sant, Woody Allen and the greats like Fellini, Bergman, Tarkovsky and among current filmmakers von Trier, Ang Lee, Wong Kar-wai. – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
You have to make millions on Friday night, because there are another 600 films waiting behind you, with explosions and everything. – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Yes, I am a Mexican, and I have a past and a culture. But what matters is the film itself, not where it was financed or cast. – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu