Claude Lelouch quotes:

People are too pretentious in France to like Sarkozy. But he'd be a fabulous president for America.

You have to strike hard from the beginning and create a depressurizing zone between the viewer's own life and the one onscreen. The creators of James Bond got it right: the attention-grabbing scene of each Bond movie is the very first one, before the opening credits.

The last film is always the most important.

Appearance is valued too much in our society.

If you want to kill someone, you'd better pull off a perfect crime. Our security lies in the fact that that's damnably hard to do.

Shame is very painful to endure. For me it makes perfect sense that the character would kill herself.

I sometimes follow people who attract my curiosity in the street for five, ten minutes.

Each time I hit a low point I learn the most. Failure is the best university.

It's funny: half my films were flops, half did well. It would be terrible if I'd had only success.

Cinema is dominated by stars you like from the get go.

The perfect crime is when you push someone to suicide. I once read a study that said everyone in the course of their life has thought of killing someone.

Film-making is like spermatozoa: only one in a million makes it.

I've seen many films and read lots of thrillers - and I'm always disappointed that I can guess the story before the other viewers.

The real loser of our times is the one who is expected to win.

The constant in my films is love stories. I consider love the chief business of humanity.

I see a film as a puzzle, with a beginning, middle, and end, but I like to start at the end sometimes.

Hollwood creates useful entertainment. There are millions of people on earth who need distraction and American cinema fulfills that function.

I decided that one day I had to make a film where the viewer couldn't possibly guess the end.