Violet has the shortest wavelength of the spectrum. Behind it, the invisible ultraviolet. Roses are Red, Violets are Blue. Poor violet, violated for a rhyme.

I'm not afraid of death but I am afraid of dying. Pain can be alleviated by morphine but the pain of social ostracism cannot be taken away.

Red protects itself. No colour is as territorial. It stakes a claim, is on the alert against the spectrum.

The Last Of England works with image and sound, a language which is nearer to poetry than prose. It tells its story quite happily in silent images, in contrast to a word-bound cinema.

All men are homosexual, some turn straight. It must be very odd to be a straight man because your sexuality is hopelessly defensive. It's like an ideal of racial purity.

Oh how Shakespeare would have loved cinema!

People say to me, "You make fantastic films" and I say, "No, I make documentaries.

I want the world to be filled with white fluffy duckies

If Gucci handbags were still in fashion Greenaway would carry his scripts in them.

I'm not afraid of death but I am afraid of dying.

I wouldn't wish the eighties on anyone, it was the time when all that was rotten bubbled to the surface. If you were not at the receiving end of this mayhem you could be unaware of it.

Cheating on self, is a paralysis of being.

If I want to dress up like Princess Leia and lightsaber fight the clone army in my living room, well the Han Solo in my life is just going to have to accept it.

I have never met anyone who gave back a heart they stole.

You are in control of your priorities – you can erase old priorities and define new priorities at will.

I'm not a defender of old or new football managers. I believe in good ones and bad ones, those that achieve success and those that don't.

Look out for Number One. If you don't, no one else will.

He who gives up freedom for safety deserves neither.

It's good to be funny when you are a comedian.

Even in 2012, if there's a black character in the movies or on television that's a professional, if we even hear about their backgrounds they're always 'up from the streets.

Some genres I'm not a huge fan of but there are always exceptions that break the rules. There are always a few people doing it in a way weird enough to grab my attention.