I don't feel very revengeful in life at all.

Dramatically, I like darkness, I like conflict - but I don't see the world as defined by them.

When your characters are really living they tell you what they do.

I hear filmmakers saying, 'I wanted to make to make a film about this issue, or this theme,' but I never start like that.

I don't think estates are grim places.

I work best when there is adversity: I seem to get calmer the more the fur is flying.

I wonder whether my bleak-o-meter is set differently from other people's. I have such passion for what I do that I can't see it as bleak. When people use that word, or “grim” or “gritty,” I just think, “Oh, come on, look a bit deeper.” My films don't give you an easy ride. I can see that. The sense I get is that people have quite a physical experience with them. They feel afterwards that they've really been through something.