I worked hard, but I was lucky the right people happened to see my work.

I was known for a while for doing very long takes, especially after Atonement.

I think that people are still trying to understand each other and overcome prejudices. And people are still, most important, loving each other. And that is today as it was yesterday and will be for another 200 years.

I've been wanting for some time to find a way of stylizing cinema and trying to get closer to the emotional story I was telling and get rid of all the bumph that goes with it and allow the audience a more participatory experience. It was an attempt to do all of those things and to express the idea that all these people were just performing roles in their lives.

My father was 65 when I was born so we didn't have much time together.

Fairy tales to me are never happy, sweet stories. They're moral stories about overcoming the dark side and the bad.

I don't make a division between an art film and commercial art.