One of Dickens' biggest influences was the growth of London as a Victorian city, and the extremes being created as it expanded.

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.

You live and die in the batting of my eyes. You cast a wavering shadow over the snow for a day. I cast my shadow over empires across eons." - Orm Hinn Langi the Dragon

The power to pray is the grace we need.

America, the plum blossoms are falling.

Do not take someone's silence as his pride, perhaps he is busy fighting with his self.

My children love my mother, and I tell my children, that is not the same woman I grew up with...That is an old woman trying to get into heaven now.

The offender never pardons.

You can always find ways to make it different, as long as it's a really well-written script and well-written character.

Art is the great democrat, calling forth creative genius from every sector of society, disregarding race or religion or wealth or color

Almost all change is evolutionary, not revolutionary... expectations always travel at higher speeds.

There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism.