Gonzalez Inarritu Quotes & Sayings

Two words guided the making of 'Babel' for me: 'dignity' and 'compassion.' These things are normally forgotten in the making of a lot of films. Normally there is not dignity because the poor and dispossessed in a place like Morocco are portrayed as mere victims, or the Japanese are portrayed as cartoon figures with no humanity. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

I have never directed anything for the stage. I studied for three years in the theater, and it was a very, very scary experience to direct live, being so vulnerable without the possibility to control things, to be so exposed. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

I think I want to talk about life from the point of view of death. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

'Birdman' came from a very beautiful side of me, from a part of honesty and surrender about things. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Cinema is universal, beyond flags and borders and passports. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

I was aware of the possible biases you could get as a commercial director, like being too concerned about the technical aspects of the form rather than anything of substance. If you keep working in commercials, you can get trapped in a very superficial way of thinking. I always used commercials as an exercise for filmmaking, like going to the gym. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

I hate superficial violence. It's shallow and stupid, and the impact on the audience is really bad. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Americans easily forget that the air they breathe is the same as those in Europe or Africa or Asia; it's the same air as Jesus breathed. I would like them to remember that connection. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

My country has been wracked with violence for a long time. Just to see all the violence on the news makes you sick. It's true that violence is in our nature, but I try to explore deeply where it comes from and where it goes and what it creates. Not in a moralistic or preachy way, but just to observe the real consequences of violence in a human being or in a society. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

'Biutiful' is not about death. It's about life. It's a hymn to life. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

I don't know if I have a career or not, or where it ends or it begins. I have been working, doing what I do for a long time. But my creative process has always been so tortuous. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Antonio Sanchez is from Mexico City. I met him at a Pat Metheny concert. He did a solo, and I thought, 'This is an octopus man!' — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Alexander Gonzalez Inarritu is a great director. He's the one I first worked with. He's amazing. — Gael Garcia Bernal

In hotels, every time I make a reservation and they never find my name, they never can pronounce it; it's so long, and sometimes they confuse. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

In 'A Confession,' Tolstoy found meaning that he could hold on to, and he lived for another 30 years. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

I started off writing TV adverts. I saw those as rehearsals for a feature film. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Nowadays, a critic has to watch 700, 800 films a year, and I know through experience, being a juror in prestigious film festivals where supposedly the best films are arriving, from twenty films maybe you see two that are good, one that is so-so, and one that is extraordinary. And the other sixteen are terrible. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

That incredible bubble and high expectations built at festivals can work against a film. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

I love the three-act theory. It works and works beautifully. But you don't necessarily have to structure a story that way: Cortazar and Borges wrote in different structural styles. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

I think we are all connected in this world. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

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. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

All people know that they will die, but they don't actually believe it. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

I personally can't handle frivolous violence. I overreact to it. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Mexico City is very different now than when I grew up, but I was in the streets all the time - though I was born to a middle-class neighborhood where there weren't a lot of gangs and things. I was always comfortable. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

When you have something that is bothering you, and then you articulate, take the time to really express it and see it clearly, to recognize. To acknowledge that is already a liberating energy. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

'Ikiru' is existential but with a lot of tenderness. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

When you see things upside down, the ego can be extraordinarily funny; it's absurd. But it's tragic at the same time. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

When you have a fresh point of view that comes from the right side of the heart, it's just so valuable. You can take it or not take it, but just that perspective can give you a lot of strength or make you reflect on a lot of things. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

We have always existed in different forms - carbon, oxygen, water, heat. Maybe Heaven is this brief period when the elements realize they're alive. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

The creative process is mysterious; a conversation, a ride in the car, or a melody can trigger something. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

'Amores Perros' is three stories that interconnect in one moment, which is the car accident. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Time is what allows stories to spread into people's consciousness. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

I think films are bigger than structure. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

I made commercials for corporations like Volkswagen and Coca-Cola, but I was always the one to write them, too, which was a very good exercise, because I learned to tell little stories. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

When I think about growing up, I feel most affected by two travels that I made working in cargo boats when I was 16 and 18. One of them crossed through the Mississippi and Baton Rouge and Mobile, Alabama, and another went all the way to Europe. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

I have been very lucky to have final cut in all my films; everything that is wrong in them is my fault. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

'Biutiful' is a tough film. It doesn't make concessions to the vulgarity of light entertainment. It's not the kind of film that you see every day in the Cineplex. But as an artist, it's the thing that I needed to do. — 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

You can better embrace life, you can enjoy it more, when you are conscious that it will end. You bite life. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

I'm telling the same story in every film. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

In order to do 'Amores Perros,' I had to skip some time at drama school, so the director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu came up with a great Latin American solution, which was to say I had a tropical disease and had to stay in Mexico for a while. Everyone believed me. — Gael Garcia Bernal

To shoot a conventional film means that you are always covering yourself. You are putting nets and, in a way, letting bad decisions take over. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

As a sensitive filmmaker, I think you have to really be careful in how you explore it. Not that you can't tell any story you want - I'm not calling for censorship or anything. But if you're going to have violence, I think it's important to deal with the consequences of that on a human level, not just to make people laugh. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

As a Third World citizen, I always feel that I need to express my point of view. Sometimes the points of view of Third World countries are never expressed. We don't have that possibility, sometimes, to spread what we feel and how we see things. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

I am not a depressive person at all. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Actors are exposed in a way that nobody else can understand. They are subject to the likes and dislikes of people their entire life, no matter how successful they are. At the same time, in order to be liked, you have to not be yourself. So it's a very complicated human exercise - an alchemy that I have never understood. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Movies started out as an extension of a magic trick, so making a spectacle is part of the game. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

I really try, at least consciously, not to be cynical or ironic. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Maybe next year the government might impose some immigration rules on the academy. Two Mexicans in a row is suspicious. [On Mexican immigrants in the US] I hope they can be treated with respect of the ones who came before and built this incredible immigrant nation. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

The expected vertical line of Ikiru's narrative breaks when Kurosawa does a flash-forward in the middle of the film. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

If the audience, in minute 50, is thinking about the way a movie is shot, there's a problem. I want it to permeate emotionally. — 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

All of us want something in life, all of us have flaws, and all of us have strengths. So, I always try to discover those things in a character and then try to expose it in one way or another. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

The visual architecture of 'Biutiful' is the most sophisticated of all the films I have directed. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

When we are looking for validation, that will never satisfy us. When we are looking for affection, for love, a little bit of that will be enough to be complete. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Innocence can be more powerful than experience. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

People talk about the pain of defeat, but I think defeat has a lot of value. I think the wound of victory can be even more damaging than defeat. Very few people really know how to win. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Life and death are illusions. We are in a constant state of transformation. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

I think movies in general should have more respect for the audience than they do. Too many films are afraid to confuse people, so all the information is given to them right away, and there's nothing left for the film to do. It ruins many stories, because everything becomes obvious and predictable. I want my films to engage people more and make them more actively involved in the story. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

I know how to work with people. I've worked with the same people for 10 years. I'm not that kind of auteur. I hear ideas. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Who cares about my opinions? — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Cannes or any other major festival is basically an animal in its own nature, creating very specific perceptions of films in a moment. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

I respect BMW for not interfering in these projects. They're just trying to support short films with their brand, which I think is great. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

The way films establish the order of scenes is very artificial. — 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 always have considered Michael Keaton to be a phenomenal actor because he navigates drama and comedy. — 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 think every beautiful tale in the world hides the truth and reveals it little by little. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Do you know the phrase, 'The word 'water' will not wet you?' It's one thing to write down an idea and another thing entirely to execute it. — 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

Writing is not an unknown territory for me. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

I remember, the first time I saw a [Andrei] Tarkovsky film, I was shocked by it. I didn't know what to do. I was fascinated, because suddenly I realized that film could have so many more layers to it than what I had imagined before. Then others, like Kurosawa and Fellini, were like a new discovery for me, another country. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

'Russian Ark,' I adore - I almost cried at the end of that film, it's so beautiful. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

My cinema is an extension of myself. A sort of life-testimony of my vital experience, with my few virtues and my numerous limitations. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

I'm an intense person. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

'21 Grams' is only one story told by three different points of view, but they are really physically connected - literally, with the heart. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Of course, there's always one theater that shows some kind of European film. Now, fortunately, you have DVDs, so it's possible to get anything you want within a few hours. In those days, it was virtually impossible to get Italian films, or German films, or whatever. So I grew up with very standard, mainstream films. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Ultimately, with every film I'd done before, there was a reference. They have their own uniqueness, but there was always a precedent. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

I really didn't want to become branded as 'that multistructural guy.' — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

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

There's nothing better than being in a film that translates to audiences and makes people think and feel good and walk away with great revelations in their own life of some kind. But when the process and the experience and the fun of that matches, it's a good feeling. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

When you do a film in a foreign language, you know there's a cost in it, that you know, unfortunately, the audiences of foreign language films have not been cultivated. There's a market, but the market has been reduced, unfortunately, and you know that when you're making a foreign language film, you're making a choice. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

In a world where irony reigns, where you have to separate, protect and laugh at anything that is honest or has an emotional charge, I bet for catharsis. I like to invest emotionally in things. And catharsis, when it touches the emotional vein, can open the doors of even those who protect themselves. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

To make a film is easy; to make a good film is war. To make a very good film is a miracle. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

if you want to be understood ...Listen. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

The cavemen, when they saw the antelopes, they had to scratch them on to the caves because they needed to express the immediacy of what they were being affected by - and I love that. That is why I do what I do. I need to express myself. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

I see only one requirement you have to have to be a director or any kind of artist: rhythm. Rhythm, for me, is everything. Without rhythm, there's no music. Without rhythm, there's no cinema. Without rhythm, there's no architecture. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

I think there's nothing wrong with being fixated on superheroes when you are 7 years old, but I think there's a disease in not growing up. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

In the creative process, my ego has always been a huge tyrant ... a dictator and kind of rude and very misleading, because sometimes when I'm doing something, I say, "This is great! This is fantastic! Very genius!" And 20 minutes later, I feel like a dead jellyfish. "You are a stupid a**hole. This is a piece of sh*t. Nobody will care about it." — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

It's very healthy to be aware of your ego. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

How can [actors] learn their lines and be honest in front of 30 people and all the lights? It makes me cry sometimes. I can't understand how they can be joking with me 30 seconds before, and 40 seconds later they're giving me all this incredible feeling. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

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. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

We are the only alive creatures that are mortals; the animals are immortal, which is why they live stupidly. We are the only creatures that know that we will die, but that is a gift. It's important because we know we have to take advantage and squeeze life and understand why we're here in the first place. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

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. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

I am not a depressive person at all, but I reflect a lot on my life, and life in general, from the perspective of death. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

One of the reasons why I agreed to do commercials is that they gave me complete freedom. I just had to have the car in it and write a story around it. I wanted to do something serious set in a Latin American country, but again, it was an exercise in style for me. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

In families you can find the source of every human drama. It is interesting because the cell of a society, the cell of a country, the cell of humanity - everything lies in the family. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

I saw what I could [in Mexico City], but we rarely got anything other than big, mainstream American films. — 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

I think bad movies are made around the world, not just in Hollywood. There are as many bad art films in the whole world as there are bad commercial films. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu