In opera, everyone's watching from a fixed viewpoint, and that really challenges you. Lighting, the sets, stage groupings, the music-but doesn't relate too much to film.

Everyone has seen photographs of Mexicans wearing those big sombreros. When you come to Mexico, the astonishing thing is, nobody wears these hats at all.

When I was 24 I went to Nigeria and it was such a culture shock, growing up in Australia and suddenly being the only white man in this unit full of black men.

When the music and the characters are flawlessly synchronized, the opera develops an emotional force that movies and plays cannot match.

In Australia, they set up a special fund to kick films off. It was quite an enlightened sort of move. You could go to this government bureau with scripts and and get finance for films.

There were movies that always made me want to be a director. You see brilliant scenes and the way the emotions were handled. I thought, I'd really like to do that.

With a film, I do my best to understand the author's intentions and try to bring the characters to life.

Film is shot in fragments, and the same moments can be shot again and again until the director is satisfied.

The music of the most popular operas is so highly esteemed, it can stand endless revivals.

It's not enough to hit the notes. There is no point in the singers just standing there and sounding wonderful if they're not connecting with the characters they are portraying.

On stage, the audience watches from a fixed viewpoint and the director cannot retake something he doesn't like. It has to work straight through.

All my life through, the new sights of Nature made me rejoice like a child.

Film is a very young art that is still evolving. Soon, we shall reach a balance between content and technology.

Do what makes you happy! It's that simple.

Focus on the competition to diminish the time dedicated to internal politics.

If leadership is, fundamentally, about serving others, then any one person should be able to move between being a "leader" and a "follower."

Compared with the thousands of years in which human life has been on this planet, Christianity is a recent development.

Sexual touch is the dessert of married life!

Love to be real, it must cost—it must hurt—it must empty us of self.

They all looked very much like the residents of any small valley to which you've never been.

Humour in its highest reach mingles with pathos: it voices sorrow for our human lot and reconciliation with it.