Everything I make starts very personally.

In terms of the mechanics of story, myth is an intriguing one because we didn't make myth up; myth is an imprinture of the human condition.

I am always worried when someone says, 'This is perfect.'

All good, clean stories are melodrama, it's just the set of devices that determines how you show or hide it.

I feel funny about owning art. I don't really want to say: "Wow, come and see my Monet - it's in a dark room at the bottom of my cellar."

When I was growing up you would see big American films that really mythologised their landscape, that really showed the vastness and the drama of their country.

I've always loved the old epics that tell a simple emotional story, whether it's the tumultuous relationship between Rhett and Scarlett or Lawrence of Arabia's passion to get lost in a faraway place.