Quotes

[on Luis Buñuel] He was educated in fear. In the fear of religion. With all those processions, people in hoods, all of that, he must have been terrified by it when he was very small. Now, he always talks about God in his films. So he's a bit like Marguerite Duras, who said, "I don't believe in God, but I talk about him."

[on imbibing US culture when growing up in Morocco in the 1940s] My parents became friends with the officers and they brought me along to see all the great movies by John Ford, George Cukor, Howard Hawks. I even saw Casablanca (1942) in Casablanca. It was amusing to see Hollywood's idea of Morocco, which was a kind of extravagant Egyptian fantasy. Of course, nobody looked anything like that.

[2012, on whether he had been concerned that playing a Bond villain might have a negative impact on his career]: On the contrary! Because, I made so many films that were not really very popular or didn't make much money, and I only made poor films, so I thought I might like to be in a rich film.