Remember, the early '60s in London was something - which must have been like Berlin in the '30s when the arts flourished. You didn't have the differences in class, and so on.

The cinema is there to heighten the imagination; I have always tried to make sure it does so.

To be successful, you really have to put your ego in the background and try to be diplomatic to achieve what you want to achieve.

My house is not James Bondish at all. Sorry.

I always wanted to design for films.

One thing that I think works in 'Casablanca' and which I've lectured a lot about - in terms of what I've been trying to achieve as a designer - is the film's creation of its own form of reality.

I'm an incurable romantic, and 'Casablanca''s one of the most romantic pictures I've ever seen - the combination of Bogart and Bergman is just magical.

With Kubrick and most film directors, they are in complete control, but one can influence them.

What I felt at that time - we're talking about '61 - was that I couldn't remember seeing a film that reflected the age we were living in.

My mother and father were interested in the arts.

It takes courage to stay young, to make your enthusiasms work for you. Don't let anyone drag you down.

A poet's work . . . to name the unnamable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world and stop it from going to sleep.

In the seventh century the Arabs created a new world into which other peoples were drawn. In the nineteenth and twentieth, they were themselves drawn into a new world created in western Europe.

To remain young one must change.

Guys should not be allowed to use the Internet all day long. So sad.

What I have said to people is that I've lived the American dream, because I have.

The powerful notion of entropy, which comes from a very special branch of physics … is certainly useful in the study of communication and quite helpful when applied in the theory of language.

No country can really develop unless its citizens are educated. Any nation that is progressive is led by people who have had the privilege of studying.

I use photography as a way to help me understand why I am here. The camera helps me to see.

That's the joy of art - it should be dangerous and challenging but it's just art - it's safe.