Don’t stand up when you can sit down and don’t sit down when you can lie down.

Aging is the diminishing of early fearlessness.

I feel more Irish than English. I feel freer than British, more visceral, with a love of language. Shot through with fire in some way. That's why I resist being appropriated as the current repository of Shakespeare on the planet. That would mean I'm part of the English cultural elite, and I am utterly ill-fitted to be.

I think that a lot of exciting elements are finding a place where a film is happily, truly about something.

I only really cast people who are desperate to be in it - who were dying to be in it, whose talent I believed in and were dead ready to do the work that was necessary.

Sometimes it comes out in what I call tricksy behavior. That's not always easy to deal with, but it's fascinating. The key thing is to make sure that somebody's tricks don't trip up somebody else.

As soon as someone I don’t respect tells me I can’t do something, it just makes me want to do it even more.