The Piano ended up on television. Everything ends up there anyway.

I would love to see more women directors because they represent half of the population and gave birth to the whole world. Without them the rest [of the world] are not getting to know the whole story.

There are some things that are real, that you can see, that you can observe, like the moon, and grass and things. But for ideas to become real, they have to be played on your senses.

For me, being a director is about watching, not about telling people what to do. Or maybe it's like being a mirror; if they didn't have me to look at, they wouldn't be able to put the make-up on.

I think if it's interesting, it's interesting, and if it's not, it's not working.

I'm someone who loves to play. I make films so I can have fun with the characters.

It's harder being a woman director because on the whole women don't have husbands or boyfriends who are willing to be wives

Only when you are relaxed can you see what's going on.

Performers are so vulnerable. They're frightened of humiliation, sure their work will be crap. I try to make an environment where it's warm, where it's OK to fail - a kind of home, I suppose.

The studio system is kind of an old boys system and it's difficult for them to trust women to be capable

Women today are dealing with both their independence and also the fact that their lives are built around finding and satisfying the romantic models we grew up with.

Rather be a thin dog that is free than a fat one chained

Perhaps I had inadvertently brushed up against the Buddhist axiom, that enlightenment is the ultimate disappointment.

How many times can a man turn his head, and pretend that he just doesn't see?

We're always going to have prejudices ... I don't think we can change society. You can only change individual by individual. And you can change yourself.

I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world because they'd never expect it.

Hatred, for the man who is not engaged in it, is a little like the odor of garlic for one who hasn't eaten any.

I won't let you be disappointed; I will show you my fighting spirit.

There are loopholes big enough to drive trucks through. And Congress needs to take a look at those laws and make sure that they're much more rigorous.

As clouds are blown away by the wind, the thirst for material pleasures will be driven away by the utterance of the Lord's name.

I've always looked at myself and criticized myself first, and that's the way I'm always going to be.