Claire Denis

I don't remember being afraid of anything in making films.

I'm not rich.

I hate the victimization of women, always.

What I like is the idea of a group, even if it's just two people - the idea of solitude within a group.

Inside the family, you can go from hate to passivity to extreme love within the same hour.

I have very strong relationships with my actors when I'm shooting. When you love an actor's work, you always feel you have to go further, and you make several films together. One film just gives you time to get acquainted.

I have no relationship to the French bourgeoisie. I don't like connecting with them.

When I was a child I had a nightmare, and in the morning, I asked my mother and father, 'If I kill someone, would you still love me?' My parents were very preoccupied with this, but I think I'm not the only one to ask for that - not love, but absolute fidelity.

My grandfather died when I was 12, but I remember the sorrow of my mother. Even now, she's an old lady, but when she speaks about her father, she looks young. A love like that is undefeated, you know?

I was never very interested in my own experience, I think, in fact, if my films have a common link, maybe it's being a foreigner - it's common for people who are born abroad - they don't know so well where they belong.

I've experienced love and ambition and desire in my life, but never in the same way as in a family.

Sometimes bleak is good. Sometimes bleak is necessary. Some part of life is always bleak.