Quotes

I was very shy, so I didn't really interact well with others. My friends were the kids of doctors, because we all lived in the hospital housing unit. Even now I like hospitals - that sterilised smell, it brings back all these memories. I'd see a lot of sick and dying people, but at the time, I didn't have a big philosophical way of thinking about illness and death. To me, it was just people - they come and go.

When Blissfully Yours (2002) won a prize at Cannes, a studio got interested and bought the distribution rights, but they didn't understand this kind of film; they opened it in huge multiplexes, and people expected big entertainment. So my film really disappointed people.

Architecture taught me how to look at things and how to accommodate people in certain spaces. People experience space, beauty, in true time, and film is also like journeying through time.

Film is like a drug. It is a shelter when you cannot deal with reality.

[on the success of Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010)] I liked it because there were so many personal references, but I didn't think they could translate to the audience. Some of my other films I can understand why they got a reaction because there are certain things in them cinematically; but Uncle Boonmee, it's such a strange one.