The ritual works. The forms overcome doubts. We have learned over the centuries to weave meaning around emptiness and pain. A meaning and a pattern. We have been practising that for a very long time.

The more you resist change, the more it will be painful for you to accept it.

It is in the nature of things to be drawn to the very experiences that will spoil our innocence, transform our lives, and give us necessary complexity and depth.

As I do with most films, I try and find some music that you could use throughout, not just a sampling of lots of different artists.

If you win power, remember why you wanted it.

Don't be afraid to adapt new ingredients into your own techniques, and traditional ingredients into new recipes.

Children now expect their parents to audition for approval.

You have to remember that reality shows capture your worst moments.

I got my first guitar when I was 15, and I just used to fool about with it, more or less, as time went by, though, I got more interested.

Football offers us a sanitized spectacle of combat that has a clear resolution, which we need more and more today given our incoherent overseas "wars."

Terrorism emanates from weakness, not strength. It is the sign of despair.