I think Tom Paine is one of the greatest men that's ever lived.

I think it is obscene that we should believe that we are entitled to end somebody's life, no matter what that person has supposedly done or not done.

Well, you cannot think of cinema now, and you cannot think of cinema in the UK and not place Chaplin in the most extraordinary elevated context, if there can be such a thing, in that he was a genius, he was unique.

And that is how I employ my time in cinema, saying things about people who I think have touched us in terms of our value judgement and by example.

I passionately believe in heroes, but I think the world has changed its criteria in determining who it describes as a hero.