Emir Kusturica

I am a man with a lot of passion.

— Emir Kusturica

I will not cut my film because, because, because, because of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

— Emir Kusturica

Yugoslavia was a kind of superpower. Great movies. Beautiful novels. Great rock-and-roll. We became a superpower in basketball. The problem is that…

— Emir Kusturica

My father was an atheist and he always described himself as a Serb. OK, maybe we were Muslim for 250 years, but…

— Emir Kusturica

My relationship with Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is very clear: respect. We met a couple of times; once I received a medal from…

— Emir Kusturica

I started moving towards Serbia when I felt my country, Yugoslavia, was being taken away from me. My feeling of nationality was…

— Emir Kusturica

I am somebody who respects Putin highly, but I'm not somebody who is against America.

— Emir Kusturica

When you make movies the way I do, you invest everything you have. And you do it like a crazy maniac.

— Emir Kusturica

In Serbia a lot of people hate me because they want to westernize, not understanding that the western world is bipolar, with…

— Emir Kusturica

At a certain moment, Yugoslavia stopped being rational, and then you end up going to war.

— Emir Kusturica

I think the city is the strongest social memory organ of humanity.

— Emir Kusturica

Most people only remember Maradona for the bad parts now. But he was a genius, someone who lifted us and himself up…

— Emir Kusturica

The advantage of the gypsy language, even though I don't understand it that much, the language is perfect melody. So if you…

— Emir Kusturica

I'm fed up with democracy. In a democracy, people vote for the mayors. I wanted to build a city where I will…

— Emir Kusturica

You know, in each segment of ex-Yugoslavia, multi-ethnic life is lost, except I think we somehow still have this in Serbia.

— Emir Kusturica

Just because I believe in the identity and integrity of my country doesn't make a xenophobe or a nationalist.

— Emir Kusturica

“Kad ti neko blizak umre, vrijeme ne teče uobičajenim tokovima. I ti, u trenutku kada čuješ takvu vijest, malo umreš. Slabije čuješ,…

— Emir Kusturica

The most difficult part of making movies is to keep making them. Maybe, you could make the biggest hit in the world,…

— Emir Kusturica

Making movies is a dangerous job. Because you are always the one who stands at the center of the universe when making…

— Emir Kusturica

I am very impulsive and very stupid sometimes, but I am very clean.

— Emir Kusturica

I never wanted an independent Bosnia. I wanted Yugoslavia. That is my country.

— Emir Kusturica

My purpose is to make a movie to make you warm. To give you some heat. Now, this rational world has become…

— Emir Kusturica

If you say morality is just what you like, you lose the metaphysical level of what in the history of philosophy is…

— Emir Kusturica

I'm just a troublemaker.

— Emir Kusturica

I am not trying to say I'm a genius, but 'Underground' was the strongest attack there has been on Milosevic. It is…

— Emir Kusturica