The range of human skin colours is quite narrow when you think about it -- and I do -- and subtle -- beige, pink, white, tan, taup...

I think my films are very English. That certain emotional distance, interest in the world, interest in irony. These are all deeply English propositions.

I don't think we've seen any cinema yet. I think we've seen 100 years of illustrated text.

I do indeed think that cinema is mortal. There is a lot of evidence already that it is dying on its feet.

I also think that everyone has an elitist approach to his own art, a complex knowledge of it, whether he is a clockmaker or an engineer. And I think it's perfectly legitimate to make use of this knowledge because it enriches the overall texture of life.

I think it is really important to be in some way provocative -- either intellectually or viscerally -- in the films one makes.

There are those who think that Zeffirelli's Hamlet is the way to treat Shakespeare. I think that cinema can handle much more. We somehow expect cinema to provide us with meaning, to console us. But that's not the purpose of art.

I like to think of The Falls as my own personal encyclopedia Greenaway-ensis.