Federico Fellini

Even if I set out to make a film about a fillet of sole, it would be about me.

Fate is written in the face.

Censorship is advertising paid by the government.

All art is autobiographical. The pearl is the oyster’s autobiography.

A created thing is never invented and it is never true: it is always and ever itself.

God may not play dice but he enjoys a good round of Trivial Pursuit every now and again.

Cinema is an old whore, like circus and variety, who knows how to give many kinds of pleasure. Besides, you can’t teach old fleas new dogs.

Hype is the awkward and desperate attempt to convince journalists that what you’ve made is worth the misery of having to review it.

It is only when I am doing my work that I feel truly alive.

No critic writing about a film could say more than the film itself, although they do their best to make us think the oppposite.

Realism is a bad word. In a sense everything is realistic. I see no line between the imaginary and the real.

I think television has betrayed the meaning of democratic speech, adding visual chaos to the confusion of voices. What role does silence have in all this noise?

Nietzsche claimed that his genius was in his nostrils and I think that is a very excellent place for it to be.

You exist only in what you do.

A different language is a different vision of life.

A good opening and a good ending make for a good film provide they come close together.

Experience is what you get while looking for something else.

The artist is the medium between his fantasies and the rest of the world.

There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the passion of life.

It’s easier to be faithful to a restaurant than it is to a woman.

Money is everywhere but so is poetry. What we lack are the poets.