People pronounce the name 'Godard', which paralyzes me, alienates me, and even prevents me from reaching my true public, the public to which I have the right … I have the impression that with the New Wave, I participated in my own misfortune. Since then, people name things without wanting to know them. So when we said, for the first time in the history of the cinema, that we were 'auteurs', we found ourselves trapped. The name 'auteur' stuck to us, and we became our own name. Today, talking about me does me harm. I feel more solitary than ever. I feel like a nothing, a non-being, nonexistent. People say 'Godard' but they don't go and see my films. 

Jean-Luc Godard, speaking in 1985