You'll see Dame Judi Dench in a Bond film, in Shakespeare and then starring in her own sitcom. You never see that here with Meryl Streep.

My mum always told me I was precious, while my dad always told me I was worthless. I think that's a good grounding for a balanced life.

Actually I like working kind of fast, because if you got it, why bother doing it over and over?

Pantomime is a big thing in the cultural calendar of my country, you know. So subtlety's not my forte.

It's really rare for film directors to be that interested in things other than themselves.

Be who you like as long as you mean it.

I like working on things that are very different and that involve different disguises.

Finally, the scariest thing about abuse of any shape or form, is, in my opinion, not the abuse itself, but that if it continues it can begin to feel commonplace and eventually acceptable.

I think people deny themselves by putting themselves into categories.

I had to be a grown-up when I should have been a little boy, and now that I'm a grown-up my little-boyness has exploded out of me. I've lived my life backwards.

It's actually quite a good ethos for life: go into the unknown with truth, commitment, and openness and mostly you'll be okay.

To be an end in myself is to bring an end to myself.

I have always learned to distinguish the important from the urgent.

For every citizen that was robbed, I had failed.

I formed a band called Atomic Rooster. The Atomic Rooster was sort of an underground cult band, sort of psychedelic. We did very well.

We will only truly be free when those in bondage are finally free

In an infinite Universe anything can happen.

Prayer is a conversation with God, but prayer is no substitute for work.

Life is rather above the measure of us all (save for a very few perhaps). We all need literature that is above our measure--though we may not have sufficient energy for it all the time.

To see a shadow and think it is a tree that is a pity; but to see a tree and to think it a shadow can be fatal.

Be careful when you take on debt. If you take on debt personally, make sure it is small. If you take on large debt, make sure someone else is paying for it.