I take no notice of the trends. It has never concerned me at all. My job is to deal with what I want to deal with and reach an audience by doing so.

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.

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

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.

Kindness is the fragrance of pure love.

Grounded leaders are present for others, operate with fortitude, and influence with the full impact of their vision and strength.

A winning mindset can transform an underdog into a champion, conqueror, and achiever. You’re a mindset away from winning your battles!

O love, O fire! once he drew With one long kiss my whole soul through My lips, as sunlight drinketh dew.

Am I incapable of living with the one sole guarantee, that I'm still here? Am I afraid of living because I fear death?

When a person’s tongue is extensively wrong, it is absurd, no less than unscriptural, to say that their heart is right.

I'm pretty cerebral, so I can occasionally rationalize emotional pain away, but when I can't, that's when I start to feel the fire inside take over and somehow manage to power through.

I hate the human race. Of course, therefore, I hate myself the most, because I am the least of the human race.

Machines will follow a path that mirrors the evolution of humans. Ultimately, however, self-aware, self-improving machines will evolve beyond humans' ability to control or even understand them.

Perhaps no sin so easily besets us as a sense of self-satisfied superiority to others.