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I didn't know I wanted to do films until I started to do them. Very few films are made in Mexico and film-making belonged to a very specific group, a clique.

I'd love to make another film in Mexico.

Yes, I am a Mexican, and I have a past and a culture. But what matters is the film itself, not where it was financed or cast.

In Mexico, there are good filmmakers, but they didn't always have the opportunity to show their work. But since 'Amores Perros,' many of these filmmakers had the opportunity to show their films, and they have a newfound energy for cinema.

I was lucky that audiences in Mexico liked my work. I was even luckier when I got to do movies and plays with my brothers.

I think the reason why a lot of the Spanish films do so well, and are so well done, is because the public really respects it and wants it.

Doing films in Latin America is like an act of faith. I mean, you really have to believe in what you're doing because if not, you feel like it's a waste of time because you might as well be doing something that at least pays you the rent.

Many Mexican directors are scared to shoot in Mexico City, which is why there are many stories in Mexican cinema about little rural towns, or set a hundred years ago.

I asked the producers when I was doing 'Y Tu Mama Tambien' if they could give me a VHS recording of the film that I could show to my family, because in Mexico and Latin America, when you do a film, you don't expect anybody to see it, especially not in the cinema.

I turn up in Los Angeles every now and then, so I can get some big money films in order to finance my smaller money films.