I always think, when there's stuff that people don't like, I always say that if I have another success, I'll enjoy it more, but you don't really.

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

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.

What you do is take the power [popularity] gives you - which is very temporary and minor but significant - and use it. The danger is that you use it on a vanity project that no one wants to watch.

I have this theory that your first film is always your best film in some way. I always try to get back to that moment when you're not relying on things you've done before.

The individual will to survive is often seen as just that, an individual thing. In fact, it's sort of a gene we all carry and like a network of computers it all contributes in some way to when it's individually needed.

I don't want to make pompous, serious films.