But films should be voyeuristic. What else is a film if you’re not snooping into somebody else’s lives?

I wonder if I would have been capable of producing anything if I worked in a more conventional way with a prewritten script, because I'm of the procrastinator class.

I did sit in cinemas as a kid looking at English and American movies thinking, "Wouldn't it be great if the characters were like real people?" And the worst thing is films are constantly advertising themselves, drawing attention to their style of things. But actually I make films that I think are extremely sophisticated and cinematic. But you don't want the audience thinking about the bloody film. You want them to think about what's going on, and believe in it. Be flies on the wall, you know?

My job apart from anything else is to build an ensemble composed of actors who all come from a secure place so that they can all work together to make the film.

In the first place, I'm pretty thorough about whom I choose. I instinctively look for the kind of actor who is going to be trusting. There are all kinds of insecure people out there called actors.

I try and create for the audience something that relates to real-life experience.

I don't know what the character is going to be. We sit down and we create a character, and all of the characters in all of my films are made like that.