Life is full of a thousand red herrings, and it takes the history of a civilisation to work out which are the red herrings and which aren't.

I suppose I am gently cynical about notions of who we think we are, but I certainly don't hate my fellow man. I think my cinema, although it might often deal with death and decay, is highly celebratory.

Cinema is not a playground for Sharon Stone.

If you want to tell stories, be a writer, not a filmmaker.

I really, sincerely believe that one should trust the work, and not the author.

I've always been fascinated by Eisenstein.

Film is such an extraordinary rich medium which can handle so many different modes of operation, combining together in the same place all these extraordinary disciplines which may be executed in their own right - music, writing, picture making of all kinds, and I often feel that some filmmakers make films with one eye closed and two hands tied behind their backs.