I want a script to affect me in some way. I am usually drawn to character studies, scripts about real people and the world we live in not some fantasy.

Someone said to me, early on in film school... if you can photograph the human face you can photograph anything, because that is the most difficult and most interesting thing to photograph.

I think of filmmaking as a form of communication. Maybe it's also an art, but that's for somebody else to decide.

I don't really believe in the mystery of cinematography - what happens in the camera is what the cinematographers create and all that nonsense.

Every shot I have ever made has been a compromise in some way. No image has ever been as good as the one I envisioned in my mind's eye.

Maybe that sounds a bit pretentious, but I think life experience is always more important than technical knowledge.

The balance of the frame - the way an actor is relating to the space in the frame - is the most important factor in helping the audience feel what the character is thinking.

If reviewers don't mention your work, it's probably better than if they do.

I am not a fan of having too much gear.

Your whole life informs your eye.

I never really considered film as a career, but I knew I didn't want to be a builder. So I went to art college, and it just gradually happened.

Only those who believe can achieve what others merely dream about. However, without these same dreams we will achieve little. Dream AND believe to ACHIEVE!!!

Understanding life is like trying to put together a puzzle with pieces that don't fit.

Whence but from heaven, could men unskilled in arts, In several ages born, in several parts, Weave such agreeing truths? Or how, or why, Should all conspire to cheat us with a lie?

The enemy of learning is knowing.

He was cut from the scene like a case of the runs from a can-can routine.

You can see what man made from the seat of an automobile, but the best way to see what God made is from the back of a horse.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the most liberal and illumined of the nine Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court.

I am very proud to be British. I'm very conscious of carrying my country with me wherever I go. I feel I need to represent it well.

To say that an artist sells out means that an artist is making a conscious choice to compromise his music, to to weaken his music for the sake of commercial gain.

Disparage no book, for it is also a part of the world.