Movies which set out to be 'commercial' usually have an artificial look about them-a certain waxlike quality. They allow for no failure, no moment of mistake.

And later I thought, I can't think how anyone can become a director without learning the craft of cinematography.

The rules are learnt in order to be broken, but if you don't know them, then something is missing.

You make the movie through the cinematography - it sounds quite a simple idea, but it was like a huge revelation to me.

Marketing is a very good thing, but it shouldn't control everything. It should be the tool, not that which dictates.

Years ago I had a house in Sussex, it was like Arcadia, with an old Victorian bridge, a pond and the Downs.

Too many films today feel formulaic and familiar. I prefer it when the familiar is made to feel strange.

When a book is just a plot, you know, two men fight for the love of a woman in a wild frontier, I immediately ask, 'Why?'

In marketing, the familiar is everything.

Mirrors are the essence of movies.

What makes God laugh is people who make plans.

An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does the truth become error because nobody will see it. 1924-1926)

We know that golf is an ancient game with great history and tradition, but our golf is only 10 years old so don't judge us too harshly.

I think President Barack Obama has been an extraordinarily successful president, and that this period will record that with a bunch of exclamation points. But obviously not everybody thinks that.

To write history is so difficult that most historians are forced to make concessions to the technique of legende.

History is a tragedy, not a morality tale.

... conscienceless efficiency is no match for efficiency quickened by conscience.

Everybody improvises their way through every day. And so I do that with music.

Typography is a minor technicality of civilized life.

Extroversion is an enormously appealing personality style, but we've turned it into an oppressive standard to which most of us feel we must conform.

A toothache will cost a battle, a drizzle cancel an insurrection.