Wise Words from Raúl Ruiz

"I believe in a superstition which many artists believe in. There's a moment in the invention process, in the art of creation, when you're producing any work of art, that is a kind of control translation and it's not you who is creating the piece anymore but the work of art which is creating itself. Actually, people are producing objects that in the future will be independent things. Maybe they can even kill us."

- Raúl Ruiz, 2012.

"My German producer said: 'We need a concept, then preparation, then execution'. But I tried to say to him: 'Well, you need preparation, execution - ideally execution first - then preparation, then re-execution, then re-preparation, then re-execution, then re-preparation, re-execution, re-preparation, re-execution and then, at the end, maybe a concept. If you are lucky.'"

- Raúl Ruiz, 2006.

"I have, of course, some general ideas about film. But I never have only one. I have… five… seven… And it's part of one or part of the other. I listen to the sounds, try to see what the images really mean for me. Concrete images, not about the whole film. And the film will be the result of those small pieces of images. Anyway, the way I cook is more or less the same way I make my films. I put things and take away things during the film and during cooking. The result is sometimes the opposite of what we thought we were making. So, when I make films, sometimes it's just the fact that the light changed: I put a filter and then I put another one and then the filter sometimes makes me change the dialogue. Sometimes the result is nothing, sometimes it works. Not always. Sometimes it's a bit rich, with too many things inside. I don't feel that a film is a dish. The film itself is more than that. It's the dish and the restaurant and the town. And the world."

- Raúl Ruiz, 1988.