I think my dyslexia was a vital part of my development because my inability to read and write meant that I had to find knowledge elsewhere so I looked to the cinema.

I couldn't be a cameraman or a designer or an actor - I have to be a director because I learned how to do that from my dad.

I see the job of directing as being one of creating the right atmosphere, creating an environment where people can realize their full potential.

Every time I make a film, I feel it gives me the chance to learn something new.

Fairy tales to me are never happy, sweet stories. They're moral stories about overcoming the dark side and the bad.

Modern, not bottom-dwelling literature like a carp.

I was known for a while for doing very long takes, especially after Atonement.

I don't make a division between an art film and commercial art.

I feel more in touch with the world when I'm filming.

Generally, I've never known quite how to fit in in civilian life, but on set, making a film, I know exactly where to go, how to behave and how I fit.

I like the idea of doing something outside my comfort zone.

I often wonder why the whole world is so prone to generalise. Generalisations are seldom if ever true and are usually utterly inaccurate.

We need to become sidha (straightforward)

She liked reality shows the best, and then the shows that purported to be about reality.

All of us will give an account to God about our life on earth, about our position and actions

Most men would rather be shot through with a broad-headed arrow than be described by you.

Religious externals may have meaning for the God-inhabited soul; for any others they are not only useless but may actually become snares, deceiving them into a false and perilous sense of security.

To me, the piano in itself is an orchestra.

It's easier to knock on a door that's not shut all the way.

For if anything is capable of making a poet of a literary man, it is my hometown love of the human, the living and ordinary.

Art is about emotion; if art needs to be explained it is no longer art.