The music of the most popular operas is so highly esteemed, it can stand endless revivals.

Everyone has seen photographs of Mexicans wearing those big sombreros. When you come to Mexico, the astonishing thing is, nobody wears these hats at all.

When the music and the characters are flawlessly synchronized, the opera develops an emotional force that movies and plays cannot match.

When I was 24 I went to Nigeria and it was such a culture shock, growing up in Australia and suddenly being the only white man in this unit full of black men.

Perhaps the most difficult thing is shooting scenes set 6,000 feet up in the mountains of Mexico.

For a director, the most challenging scenes are the dialogue scenes.

In silent movies, they tended to put the camera down, and everybody walked in front of it and acted, and then they all walked off. Cutting was quite infrequent.