There's a paraphrase about Orson Welles saying: "Great films are made by great directors and the rest are made by everyone else." I've been very lucky... before I start insulting the profession of directing, but I think a good director is everything and a bad director really is nothing at all.

I haven't had to struggle very much. I haven't paid my dues. I think I have been lucky.

I was delighted to become a popular-culture reference point. I'm still delighted about it actually, and I still find it to be weird.

I think everyone is throwing happy stuff at you, and that's when you come over all humbug. It's happy stuff in your face, happy stuff is being sold to you.

Doing a job, or even watching a film, can make a difference to your life, but I don't think it ever has an explosive impact where your life will never be the same again. It kind of seeps into your life, and perhaps realise you're a little more vigilant about certain things than you might have been.

My grandmother was a minister as well, which was not that common in the 1930s.

I'll be your friend so long as you're not crap