Every time I make a film, I feel it gives me the chance to learn something new.

I couldn't be a cameraman or a designer or an actor - I have to be a director because I learned how to do that from my dad.

I think my dyslexia was a vital part of my development because my inability to read and write meant that I had to find knowledge elsewhere so I looked to the cinema.

I see the job of directing as being one of creating the right atmosphere, creating an environment where people can realize their full potential.

Fairy tales to me are never happy, sweet stories. They're moral stories about overcoming the dark side and the bad.

Modern, not bottom-dwelling literature like a carp.

I was known for a while for doing very long takes, especially after Atonement.

I don't make a division between an art film and commercial art.

I feel more in touch with the world when I'm filming.

Generally, I've never known quite how to fit in in civilian life, but on set, making a film, I know exactly where to go, how to behave and how I fit.

I like the idea of doing something outside my comfort zone.

Life is a series of awakenings.

If nostalgia holds you hostage, the ransom is the present.

'Rookie' is not your guide to Being a Teen. It is, quite simply, a bunch of writing and art we like and believe in.

I never rode a motorcycle before CHiPs.

Sometimes people change their minds, sometimes they meet someone else, sometimes they get sober, and sometimes he was just a jerk who you're lucky to be rid of.

A man's character is his fate.

Do you like to eat things? -I love eating. I list it as a hobby.

Propositions show what they say: tautologies and contradictions show that they say nothing.

To look to God is to look to the realm of consciousness that can deliver us from the pain of living.

People in Third World countries think and laugh and smile, just like us. We have got to understand that we are them they are us.