I'm always afraid someone's going to tap me on the shoulder one day and say, 'Back to North London.'

The films that I do tend to polarise people’s views.

Making a film is so hard that if you don’t have your main actors going along with the ride with the rest of the crew it can make your life very difficult.

I’ve always been completely autocratic. I’ve never learned to be diplomatic or democratic.

I’m a pluralist. I’ve always argued that as many different films as possible should be made.

I always argued against the auteur theory; films are a collaborative art form. I’ve had some fantastically good people help me make the movies.

It doesn’t matter what the technology is – no one will watch a Peter Greenaway film anyway.

Rain is also very difficult to film, particularly in Ireland because it’s quite fine, so fine that the Irish don’t even acknowledge that it exists.

It's probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do, ... just being away from my kids and my family. That's all I thought about everyday.

People should focus their energy on developing a taste for dark chocolate, because its high cocoa content means that it contains far less sugar than the average chocolate bar.