I feel very much ideologically, politically if you like, and emotionally part of the European cinema.

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.

Beware of the compound adjective, beloved of the tyro and the 'poetess'.

You can’t change the world if you don’t know the principles of God

And this new air was so delicious, and all his old life seemed so far away, that he forgot for a moment about his bruises and his aching muscles.

We must teach science in the mother tongue. Otherwise, science will become a highbrow activity. It will not be an activity in which all people can participate.

Socialism means slavery.

I just want choices. Its not about making money and having a lot of friends in Hollywood; thats the last thing I want.

A true patriot would keep the attention of his fellow citizens awake to their grievances, and not allow them to rest till the causes of their just complaints are removed.

I'm so down to earth, I'm bringing gravity back.

Music is always around, and it helps to heighten any emotion.

Every good servant does not all commands.