Bill Viola is worth ten Scorseses.

Anybody who writes a diary insists it must be read by someone else.

I don't think we've seen any cinema yet. I think we've seen 100 years of illustrated text.

I do indeed think that cinema is mortal. There is a lot of evidence already that it is dying on its feet.

My favourite film-maker west of the English Channel is not English - but to me doesn't seem American either - David Lynch - a curious American-European film-maker. He has - against odds - achieved what we want to achieve here. He takes great risks with a strong personal voice and adequate funds and space to exercise it. I thought Blue Velvet was a masterpiece.

I always think that if you deal with extremely emotional, even melodramatic, subject matter, as I constantly do, the best way to handle those situations is at a sufficient remove. It's like a doctor and a nurse and a casualty situation. You can't help the patient and you can't help yourself by emoting. And I don't think cinema is intended for therapy, so I object also to that huge, massive manipulation which is perpetrated on the public.

All religions have always hated females.