I would love to do something for TV... I wanna do 'Kavalier & Clay' on HBO as an eight-parter. It'll be so much better as a series, honestly.

I am, in fact, Superman. Every morning I wake up and go into a telephone booth and change my costume, and then go to work.

You go through a process of refinement and getting rid of the excesses of your early youth in terms of your excitement about what theatre can do.

There are a few writers that one has a relationship with that means, basically, you do whatever they say. One is Caryl Churchill, and the other is David Hare.

I'm a theatre person, that's who I am. I'm happy to make sojourns into the world of movies but I'm basically a theatre director that potters off and does a couple of movies.

I have never been motivated by money in my life. You can't make choices based on what the financial return might be.

England is strictly class-based. What's surprising is how many films are still made with a load of people in silly frocks running around gardens and talking in middle-class accents.

At school, I decided I wanted to be a director and then I went out and spent the rest of my adult life trying to be a director. It was really clear to me. So in that sense I was very lucky.

As soon as I know how to do something, I usually get bored with it.

I always say, 'I really need to take a break.' It's three days in and I'm getting pretty bored.

I categorically resist this idea that films are supposed to be autobiographical and the only stories you tell are about your own life.

We make our own monsters, then fear them for what they show us about ourselves.

I am very concerned about the environment and psychological health of this beautiful planet.

What are our natural principles but principles of custom?

I'm a businessman and actor and I still make appearances.

It is in vain to look for the elevation of woman so long as she is degraded in marriage.

The greatest advantage in gambling lies in not playing at all.

Life is beautiful, but you don't have a clue.

I have loved justice and hated inequity; and therefore I die in exile. [Lat., Dilexi justitiam et odi iniquitatem, propterea morior in exilio.]

I am a woman, therefore I am a problem solver.

When the last moment arrives, praise and blame will be the same to you, to me, and to others. We are here to work, and will have to leave all when the call comes.