I've been lucky over the past few years. Things have just happened for me.

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 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 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.

An author who gives a manager or publisher any rights in his work except those immediately and specifically required for its publication or performance is for business purposes an imbecile.

There is nothing evil save that which perverts the mind and shackles the conscience.

We are a team. We share the ball, we share the game, we share the worries.

The key is to maintain an evenness. Try to play one possession at a time, regardless of what happened on the last possession

I've never been a big fan of the music-video style of editing movies that crept in the last few decades. I like stuff that's able to take its time.

People are backsliders on their knees long before they backslide openly in the eyes of the world.

Everything is a once in a lifetime experience.

Die each moment so that you are renewed each moment.

It's fun to talk about heaven, about the throne of God and Jesus and Pop and the daughter we thought we had lost but will meet again someday. But it's not fun to talk about how we got there.

People tend to think of their lives as having a dramatic arc, because they read too much fiction.