Given the choice of Hollywood or poking steel pins in my eyes, I'd prefer steel pins.

I’ve walked out of films. But for every film I’ve ever walked out of, I’ve probably walked out of 500 plays.

The reason my films work is because every actor on set is very secure. They’re able to fly.

The problem with the British film industry is the nervousness and insecurity about – and genuflection toward – Los Angeles.

You can’t make a movie about the artist without shooting outdoors.

I’m developing the stuff all the time. There’s a film in my head. I’m imagining a film.

The way an actor is trained doesn’t ultimately have much bearing on my work. I’m interested in the actor as artist.

I can’t really see how anybody could be particularly optimistic about the future in general because we are destroying the planet.

I think it’s important that nobody forgets that although Hollywood commercially dominates the world cinema, in fact what comes out of the filmmaking here is only a tiny slice out of the massive amount of operation that goes on around the world.

I can’t negotiate and collaborate with a character to create a distilled dramatic investigation of the raw material. I need to work with an actor. That stuff about actors who stay in character all the time is nonsense.