Woody Allen: Religion and faith is better than nothing

Woody Allen says having faith in “something” is “better than nothing”. The director — who turns 75 December 1 — says his new film, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, was influenced by themes such as fortune-telling and religion.

“I had known people that put their faith in fortune-telling and they were fairly intelligent people except for that weakness. I always thought that was the most ridiculous thing in the world, but then I started to think, ‘Better to have something than nothing,’” he told Total Film magazine.

“Some people have faith in astrology, in fortune-telling, Catholicism, Judaism; as long as you have something it seemed to me that it was better than nothing.”

Woody — who is twice-divorced — recently insisted there is no secret recipe to a happy home life, because it’s all down to luck!

“We think we can control it and we think we know what we’re doing, but it’s largely dependent on luck,” said the movie maker, who has been married to Soon-Yi Previn, the adopted daughter of his ex-wife Mia Farrow, for the past 13 years.

“If you’re very lucky, you may just have a happy relationship. And if you’re unlucky, all logical reasons in the world don’t seem to make sense. So you meet somebody, you’re attracted to somebody, and the exquisite neurons in the brain mesh properly and things can be wonderful and things are not like homework.

“You shouldn’t have to work at your relationship; it’s not like the treadmill. It’s pleasurable. But it’s hard to hit that jackpot and get lucky. You think that you can control it, but it’s not really so.”