Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu Quotes

For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Only then, approaching my fortieth birthday, I made philosophy my life's work.

The unexamined life is not worth living.

I just turned 30 so I got really introspective as you do, questioning my life. And when I stopped and sort of looked back at the past decade, I realized I had done more work than I thought I had done.

Thirty was a big deal for me. It was the age where I reevaluated everything - how I approached life and how I thought about myself. When I look at my 20s, or when I look at any period in my life, I think about how much time I've wasted trying to find the right man.

I think most people who get into their 50s reassess what made sense and what didn't make sense.

After having my baby I felt like I'd been introduced to my life, I slowed down, I paid more attention to simple things, I addressed a few issues in my own life, I even got married, I looked at what was important and what wasn't, and so I used that experience for inspiration.

If in your mind it was possible to take a year's sabbatical from work to reassess your life, what would you do and where would you go?

I am a firm believer that every few years one needs to shake one's life through a sieve, like a miner in the Yukon. The gold nuggets remain. The rest falls through like the soft earth it is.

My life was really interesting before 'Chic.'

The inventory process and stepping back in your life can sometimes be a very dark process. But it also can be extremely funny and surprising.

People think my work is therapeutic. I don't see it that way. It's not like I'm saving money from a weekly therapy visit by writing down my life.

I always write to understand my place in the world. I can see myself and my life unfold on the page, and I can understand my strengths, my weaknesses - I can see where I need to step up a bit.

When I turned 40, subconsciously, life was a blank sheet. Before, it was disjointed, and I was very displaced and quite mad, but it was a brilliant time. Everyone thinks I must have been unhappy.

I didn't go to America to be a star, but to try to reclaim my life.

I've done thousands of interviews in my life, and it's a format that I quite enjoy, because I think of questions in interviews as an opportunity to sort of gauge my growth in a way. It gives me an idea of how I'm navigating this world that I'm in.

I was not looking for my dreams to interpret my life, but rather for my life to interpret my dreams.

Romantic relationships are the least interesting thing for me to write about. I'm 45, and that's not the most interesting thing in my life anymore.

'Suddenly Susan' is my life.

I gave my life to become the person I am right now. Was it worth it?

I wanted to explore the values that are at work, underpinning my life.

My life has gotten so much better since I turned 40.

I try to say something about the human condition whenever I can when I'm lucky.

I'm not running from any particular problems, I just want to take some time and figure out in my life where I can keep doing what I'm doing but in a way that I can also honor what I want to do for myself.

I think I value things more correctly. I hope I look at my life in a way that makes sense.