Most directors make films with their eyes; I make films with my testicles.

I never suspected that El Topo would be seen. All Mexico was against it, they wanted to kill me—they thought I was making a black mass! I was like an alien to them. I had to play the cowboy figure in El Topo because nobody else wanted to. They were scared to act in something so weird. George Harrison wanted to play the thief in Holy Mountain. I met him in the Plaza Hotel in New York and he told me there’s one scene he didn’t want to do, when the thief shows his asshole and there is a hippopotamus. I said: “But it would be a big, big lesson for humanity if you could finish with your ego and show your asshole.” He said no. I said, “I can’t use you, because for me this is a sin.” I lost millions and millions—stars are good for business but not for art, they kill the art.

—Alejandro Jodorowsky