Because I am an Englishman I spent most of my life in a state of embarrassment.

I don't know if there's a problem with original ideas... I think a healthy film industry should have a good supply of good, original writing.

They said: "Make it in this amount of time and go for it now..." Which is why I was suddenly ambushed and we all found ourselves doing it. I suspect this wasn't quite recognisable in its genre to give people the confidence just to throw money at it.

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

It used to be that I was always paranoid or a loser or something so there's usually something that you seem to associate yourself with at one time or another.

As much as the next person, I want to be approved of, but I'm not greedy for that stuff.