- [at the 1959 Academy Awards] I find that the people who speak the worst English want to talk more than the others.
- [on his attitude towards cars] Well, first of all, they change the personality of people. Take a very nice gentleman whom you'll meet in a bar: as soon as he gets in his car, he changes absolutely; he has to be very strong not to change. Secondly, the more the engineers work for us, the less we have to do when we drive a car, . . before, people participated in the driving; they knew by the sound of the motor how to change gears-rmrmrm, into second, and so forth. You participated, and you had to be a good driver. Now, with the new American car, it doesn't make any difference whether you're a bad or good driver. What they call comfort and new techniques have become so exaggerated that I tried to create a car (in Traffic) that was absolutely ridiculous, where you can take a shower, make coffee, shave - but it's not practical at all, it's the worst possible car to take on a holiday, because it brings you so many problems. And when you become so remote from what's designed for you, the human connections between people start to go - like with the police in the film. I'm always - in each shot, each moment - trying to defend the simple man, who tries to fix something with his hands.
- [on Playtime] It's a little bit like a ballet. At the beginning, the people's movements always follow the architecture, they never make a curve, they go from one line to another. The more the picture continues, the more the people dance, and start to make curves, and turn around, and start to be absolutely round - because we have decided that we're still there. That's what I like.
- [on Playtime] The images are designed so that after you see the picture two or three times, it's no longer my film, it starts to be your film. You recognize the people, you know them, and you don't even know who directed the picture. It's not a film you sign like Fellini's Roma. Playtime is nobody. I don't say that it's easy to do. The dimension of the camera is the dimension of what your eyes see; I don't come close up or make tracking shots to show you what a good director I am. I want your eyes to put you in such a situation where you come to the opening of the restaurant, as though you were there that night.
- [on Playtime] There's no star, no one person is important, everybody is; you are as important as I can be. It's a democracy of gags and comics - the personality of people regarding an architecture that people have decided for us to live in, without asking us whether we agree or not. In the end, we all win in the sense that we still talk to each other; if anything goes wrong, we're still partners, and some small people are still allowed to be important.
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