Your first film is always your best film, in a way. There's something about your first film that you never ever get back to, but you should always try. It's that slight sense of not knowing what you're doing, because the technical skills you learn - especially if you have a film that works, that has some kind of success - are beguiling. The temptation is to use them again, and they're not necessarily good storytelling techniques.

One of Dickens' biggest influences was the growth of London as a Victorian city, and the extremes being created as it expanded.

I made this film 'The Beach,' which didn't take place in a city, and it didn't really suit me.

If I am acting out in any particular way that is harmful to myself - without a shadow of doubt, there is a feeling suppressed under wanting that second candy bar. Often, it is that little voice I haven't paid attention to. It's generally not the adult voice. If I take a moment to address that and figure out what that is, the desire for the candy bar seems to dissipate.

I say to first time filmmakers that when they're asked, they should go to America as you're far more likely to get a chance.

If you take a loud pride in anything, people will rightly shoot you down.

Movies are about time. You can take that momentum and manipulate time as well, or you can deliberately slow it down, stop it, and start it again. There is no other art form that does that type of manipulation in that way.