I haven't got anything against films that are about the minutia of relationships or customs, but I love extremes.

The sun is the most important thing in everybody's life, whether you're a plant, an animal or a fish, and we take it for granted.

Theres a certain truth that you do end up making the same film again and again so if you vary the genre you have a chance of breaking that cycle.

To be a film-maker, you have to lead. You have to be psychotic in your desire to do something. People always like the easy route. You have to push very hard to get something unusual, something different.

If you love a book you tend not to follow its surface value, you follow the other things in it.

If you have to be persuaded about something, you shouldn't do it.

Even though one of them is about an Edinburgh junkie and ones a little boy of eight in Manchester, you want them to always portray their world in such a vivid way that the audience can disappear inside the story.