My two elder sisters married Englishmen and went abroad.

Perhaps naively I thought people understand what humor was, that it was invented by the human race to cope with the dark areas of life, problems and terrors.

The movie business is very much like that: people in authority making purely emotional decisions instead of interesting rational ones.

I'd made these experimental films but I thought the major chore of a filmmaker was to relate to actors.

There are things that Scotsmen get and other people don't get in the dialogue. Scottish characters can be pinpointed by a phrase, targeted very quickly.

It means that if they misunderstood Comfort and Joy, they misunderstood my other films.

I went to the Glasgow Youth Theatre and they just let me in. But I was so shy that I was there for about six weeks without actually introducing myself.

At the moment, my mother is the only one left in Glasgow, although it's certainly my home.

I didn't think Comfort and Joy was going to be a box-office smash.

It's easier for me to get three times the amount of money I really want.

I was quite surprised how easily people wanted to pigeonhole things I've done.

The sense of a soul and afterlife is an intuitive illusion.

Some scars don't hurt. Some scars are numb. Some scars rid you of the capacity to feel anything ever again.

The fear of failure is not just the greatest fear of man, it is the fear of man. All other fears are avatars of the fear of failure.

I find looking forward scary because you might die.

Through self-knowledge you begin to find out what is God, what is truth, what is that state which is timeless. In self-knowledge is the whole universe; it embraces all the struggles of humanity.

In our industry today only a strong company with a global reach can ensure long-term employment and provide acceptable returns for shareholders.

Men should spend less time with guns and more time in childbirth.

She thought I was...soulful, by which I think she means that I don't say much and I always look vaguely pissed off.

Respect for food is respect for life, for who we are and what we do.