I wanted to know as the director how the actors wanted to tell this story I wanted to know what they thought.

An agent friend of mine who will remain nameless said you can't make a romance about homeless people; nobody wants to see them kiss. And I thought, what a repulsive, repugnant, extraordinary thing to say. I had to think about the fact that the world is probably full of other people who feel like that. The very idea that we spend time trying to humanize humans is extraordinary to me.

Doing the big budget films really makes you appreciate doing movies like Shelter. It's because this is like doing theater, you just have to hit the ground running

I was brought up Catholic. I'm lapsed. From the age of three I was with the nuns. Now I'm an atheist.

I have no interest in movies that take you somewhere dark and leave you there, for no reason.

I find that our response to homelessness really puzzlingly. It's a peculiar response that people have.

People have suggested that perhaps we are too affluent to be telling this story, which is amazing to me because then I wonder what story I am allowed to tell. Having been working with the homeless for the past years, I noticed lots of things about them, but one thing I really noticed was that they were probably too busy just getting though the day to make a film about themselves.