What I ended up writing was far more dramatic and more personal that I had intended. When I sat down to write a movie about what I really loved, it seemed obvious that what I really loved were women, being around them and trying to figure out my relationship with them–Jonathan Kasdan

Apprehension, anxiety, desire are elements of every artist's life. I didn't want to make a conventional biopic, but I did want everything that was in the movie to be real. It's just that, at certain points, especially concerning her childhood, which Edith Piaf rarely discussed, I extrapolated, using the few elements at my disposal–Director Olivier Dahan

Director Olivier Dahan had built an intimate, balanced, very human portrait of Piaf. His script was full of powerful moments, life-changing encounters, breakups, desertions, hope and love. A regular movie only has one scene that reaches that pitch. This one is full of them. It's probably Piaf's intensity, in the good and bad times, which explains why she only lived to be 47–actress Marion Cotillard

It‚Äôs not every day you get to work with one of your heroes. Anthony Hopkins is one of the greatest actors of all time, and for young guys like me, he's like a Jedi or something. When you work with him, you hope he shows you the way of the Force–Ryan Gosling

Philadelphia doesn't shake a stick at people who are afraid of AIDS. I think it's completely understandable for people to recoil at the idea of AIDS if they haven't known someone, or if they don't have a loved one who is already fighting AIDS. For me, the message of the film is: Where ignorance exists, fear exists–Director Jonathan Demme