Well, I think just the fact that you are making your first film is a huge step.

I think you get better at staring into space. Especially living in the South of France.

Their every instinct - and I have to say this is without exception - is to iron out the bumps, and It's always the bumps that are the most interesting stuff.

I wanted to make a movie about the arbitrary nature of love.

Always, with any movie that I do, I have a book of ideas that I've heard, or seen, or whatever, and I always try to incorporate it in the film.

The danger is that if you have a bunch of ideas that you forget to use.

The challenge, really, on any new film is to try to avoid that and achieve a few moments that aren't cliche.

Somebody said that I'm a bit like a sponge, grabbing things here and there, soaking stuff up. [As a director] you have to be, really.

Well, Brief Encounter is certainly one of my top five favorites of all time. I looked at Brief Encounter very closely, to be honest.

It's the sort of subject that always interests me: jealousy and the language of suspicion and guilt. I think it interests people.

I've always been interested in films where you can identify with the actors. Where you can be in their shoes and therefore be more involved if they're people that you recognize.

Welfare reforms and the whole “happy” exploitation movement are not “baby steps.” They are big steps–in a seriously backward direction.

Joy is something we can’t manufacture. Joy happens to us not because of us.

When I die, I want to be remembered for what I did, not what I could've done

every time I've held a rose, It seems I only felt the thorns

Stealing a man's wife, that's nothing, but stealing his car, that's larceny.

I'm a huge admirer of Pope Francis and everything he stands for. I think he's an incredibly connected spiritual and authentic being.

Dream as big as you can dream, and anything is possible.

Race, to me, is a very blurry thing.

There is no failure for the man who realizes his power, who never knows when he is beaten; there is no failure for the determined endeavor; the unconquerable will.

There is one group of people - social conservatives, religious conservatives - who honestly feel that women's place is in the home and that wives should submit to their husbands.