If I was American, I think I'd live in New York, because I like that East Coast mentality. There's nothing wrong with Hollywood. If you want to be a big time filmmaker, you should go to Hollywood.

It's a good place when all you have is hope and not expectations.

I grew up in a city, I'm a city person - I go on holiday and I'm bored.

There's lots of things that can be solved with cash.

I've just been to the Taj Mahal which I'd never been to and I'm not a very romantic kind of guy but it is the most romantic thing I've ever seen.

The sun is the most important thing in everybody's life, whether you're a plant, an animal or a fish, and we take it for granted.

I don't want people to sit there and objectively watch the film. I want them to experience it as something that's under their skin, so you try to make the films really tactile.

I want people to leave the cinema feeling that something's been confirmed for them about life.

If you have to be persuaded about something, you shouldn't do it.

I learned with 'The Beach' that I'm a bit better lower down the radar.

The awards season gives a chance for independent films to have a bit of longevity in the press and the media.

Pamela produced placid babies. "They don't tend to turn feral until they're two, " she said.

Self-awareness is inevitably erratic, a work in progress, an etch-a-sketch that shifts with the slightest shimmer of movement. Doing the best we can is the best we can do.

Free is the best. Anything free is good.

A considerable share of the world's population still cannot afford comfortable housing, education and quality health care.

Stand-up isn't something I just sit down and start writing - it's ideas you come up with in the shower, while you're driving, waiting in line.

In first grade, I told my friends I had a third story in my house filled with jewels and lions.

Although the film industry is a very unique melting pot of creative and business types, both for the good and the bad, I love being able to wake up everyday to play.

When I was a child, I had a quiet, protected childhood.

Film has the potential of allowing me to explore my own ideas, which I find very attractive.

The West should be even more vocal in insisting that the Russians respect human rights.