My duty is to try to reach beauty. Cinema is emotion. When you laugh you cry.

My duty is to try to reach beauty. Cinema is emotion. When you laugh you cry.

My father was a farmer and my mother was a farmer, but, my childhood was very good. I am very grateful for my childhood, because it was full of gladness and good humanity.

It’s a sign of mediocrity when you demonstrate gratitude with moderation.

My mother brought me magicians and witches, because I was very ugly, really revolting. So she thought somebody had put a spell on me – this is the truth – so she made me drink some horrible terrifying potions, for year.

Fellini belongs to nature.

In Italy, the country where fascism was born, we have a particular relation with the Holocaust, but as a turning point in history it belongs to everybody in the world. It is a part of humanity.

I remember in the circus learning that the clown was the prince, the high prince. I always thought that the high prince was the lion or the magician, but the clown is the most important.

The first movie I saw – and I don’t know if it influenced me – was Ben Hur. We watched it outside in a corn field, and it ran backwards, so the first movie I ever saw was Ben Hur backwards.

For me, Fellini was like a watermelon. It is there. A watermelon cannot die.

When I first saw a Fellini movie, I came out of the movie theatre and decided to become a lawyer! I thought to myself, it’s impossible to make something so beautiful!