The way an actor is trained doesn't ultimately have much bearing on my work. I'm interested in the actor as artist.

The problem with the British film industry is the nervousness and insecurity about - and genuflection toward - Los Angeles.

If a film or any piece of work doesn't entertain, it fails - and that is using the word entertain literally, meaning it holds you there and you become absorbed by it so that you don't walk away and get bored and so on.

It creeps up on you and becomes an obsession. It comes out of watching a million movies.

Independent filmmaking has always been there and it's not to be forgotten.

I am very happy to be part of European and world cinema as a British filmmaker.

For me the journey of making a film is a journey of discovery as to what that film is. I mean what I do is what other artists do, painters, novelists, people that make music, poets, sculptors, you name it. It's about starting out and working with the material and discovering through making, working with the material the artifact.