I do think that kids today miss out on a lot of those guidelines. Parents are always at work; school doesn`t necessarily give the framework; politicians are all corruption and scandal; even sporting heroes are tainted with drugs and what have you. Rules are important for kids.

People often say I`m a child at heart. In fact, I think I just have access to [my childhood], I have a very clear memory of it. We were all children once. We just need to show a bit of respect for it.

I was never polluted by the world of cinema. I didn`t even have a TV until I was 16. My expression is a reflection of the world I have seen, and in that world everyone was barefoot in bathing suits, following the order of the sea, the natural order of sunrise and sunset. I never went to the cinémathèque. I didn`t know much about the masters of world cinema.

Why did I make Subway? Why did I do all that crazy undersea stuff in The Big Blue? Why did I go all black and nasty with Nikita?. I don`t know. Because I did. I do what I do because I want to do it, because I want to explore, go looking for things.

Cinema never saved anyone`s life, it is not a medicine that will save anyone`s life. It is only an aspirin.

What`s so special about all those amazing British children`s writers, those who gave us Alice in Wonderland and Robinson Crusoe and Pooh Bear and Peter Pan and Peter Rabbit and the rest, was that they didn`t set out to seduce. The great children`s writers were authentic, they copied no one, they didn`t set out to make money or to preach ideas. They just transcribed their dreams.