Films like 'Babel' can transcend the one point-of-view formula that has reigned for so long.

I have been very lucky to have final cut in all my films; everything that is wrong in them is my fault.

I don't know if I have a career or not, or where it ends or it begins. I have been working, doing what I do for a long time. But my creative process has always been so tortuous.

Two words guided the making of 'Babel' for me: 'dignity' and 'compassion.' These things are normally forgotten in the making of a lot of films. Normally there is not dignity because the poor and dispossessed in a place like Morocco are portrayed as mere victims, or the Japanese are portrayed as cartoon figures with no humanity.

I think Kurosawa was one of the first storytelling geniuses who began to change the narrative structure of films.

If I had been at an assembly line for films, I don't know if I would be the best driver. I think I would have crashed the car.