Some of my ideas for film or theater come to me in dreams. I'm also very creative when I'm talking to others. I believe in collaboration.

I saw bubbling lava, and at the same moment I saw a reflection of a certain kind of inner turmoil. Because at the moment I looked into that crater, I slipped, and a large piece of volcanic rock took a hole out of my leg. The scar is still there 20, 30 years later. But it's one of those things that reminds you of the kind of risk or the kind of moment in order to push yourself.

A performance can have amazing visuals and special effects, but it has to tell a good story, even if that story isn't original.

I love directing Shakespeare on film. It's fantastic that the actors would do exactly the same thing and be true to their part.

You program music with an image and then people are desensitized.

Children have an easier ability to tap into the surreal than adults do, in a funny kind of way.

But I don't think there has ever been anything written on the nature of violent man as deep and as thorough as Shakespeare's Titus. I think it puts all modern movies and modern exploitations of violence to shame.