But films should be voyeuristic. What else is a film if you’re not snooping into somebody else’s lives?

When I was young I used to sit in the cinema thinking wouldn't it be great if you could have a film in which the characters were like real people instead of being like actors.

I try and create for the audience something that relates to real-life experience.

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

I hope I make films where you walk away . . . with work to do, arguments to have, things to worry about, things to care about. In that sense, I would regard what I do as political.

My work is about life as you and I experience it. You're either lucky or you're not lucky; either your relationship works or it doesn't.

There's a constant drip and trickle of life that goes into one's awareness really and consciousness of things.

I discover what my film is by embarking on the journey of making it.

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

It's an unhealthy habit to say that life is what you make of it, and if you want to be happy, then you can be happy. That's just rubbish, basically.

Given the events of even the 19th century, Zionism was inevitable. Given the events of the 20th century, Israel was inevitable.

Dr Weiss, at forty, knew that her life had been ruined by literature

I think women are closer to God than we are. They walk right out there like they know what they're doing.

Sometimes, some of you speak about god, and I mistake him for an abusive lover you're trying to escape.

I don't really rate press conferences. It's not as though I leave the room fist-pumping my way down the corridor after a good one.

This world is a great sculptor's shop. We are the statues and there is a rumor going round the shop that some of us are some day going to come to life.

Kippers : fish that like a lot of sleep.

I have no complaints. I am comfortable and satisfied. I am not the kind of person who reaches for the moon as long as I have the stars.

But I didn’t dare. That has always been my trouble. I’ve never dared enough.

I made a 1,600 minus 800 minus 200 on the SAT, so I'm very intelligent when I speak.

I'm interested in animation. I actually feel like I've learned so much about the process how to make an animated movie.