When I was young I used to sit in the cinema thinking wouldn't it be great if you could have a film in which the characters were like real people instead of being like actors.

I've walked out of films. But for every film I've ever walked out of, I've probably walked out of 500 plays.

Resolve was never stronger than in the morning, after the night, when it was never weaker

Because of the way that I work with the actors and because a scene is not in this rigid and literal interpretation of something written, I can constantly change stuff, which means I can get a scene absolutely perfect, and then when we go to shoot it, the requirements of the shot mean it would be useful to extend the dialogue or take a line out or swap things around. So the camera doesn't serve the action. The action serves the camera. That's important. So it becomes more and more organic and integrated.

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.

The kind of acting that's wholly literary or cerebral is wrong. It's useless for me to have actors so much in their heads that they can't be organic.

I think Michael Caine is a perfectly good actor but it's obvious he's not going to be in one of my films.