I only storyboard scenes that require special effects, where it is necessary to communicate through pictures.

I was in Japan, and my assistant director had worked with Kurosawa. I used quite of number of Kurosawa's crew.

There are always forces at work in a society, which are really forces of censorship - either religious bodies or zealots who are always putting pressure on things, whether it's books or art or film.

What is passion? It is surely the becoming of a person. Are we not, for most of our lives, marking time? Most of our being is at rest, unlived. In passion, the body and the spirit seek expression outside of self. Passion is all that is other from self. Sex is only interesting when it releases passion. The more extreme and the more expressed that passion is, the more unbearable does life seem without it. It reminds us that if passion dies or is denied, we are partly dead and that soon, come what may, we will be wholly so.

In the '60s and '70s it was a great period for American films because studios were still run by individuals who worked off the seat of their pants and went along with things. At that time, they were very uncertain about what to make because of the influence of television. A lot of really terrific movies were made. But then the studios gradually became more corporate and were owned by corporations and run in that way and now they're very nervous. You see what they make - sequels, franchises and try not to take risks.

The resistance to black-and-white is huge, in the way that you have to sell the film. It's difficult to distribute around the world.

Black-and-white gives you that sort of parallel world. Also, it's very close to the condition of dreaming, to the unconscious.