Tulse Luper, who without too many confessions, in a sense, is a fictive version of me. I have to say he has far more exciting adventures, and certainly a lot of them sexual, than ever I've experienced. But in a sense, what you do with an alter ego, you give them all sorts of permissions and licences which you know you'll never be able to embrace in your real life.

The Sistine Chapel is an extraordinary work of education - it lays out all the early books of the Bible.

To be an atheist you have to have ten thousand times more imagination than if you are a religious fundamentalist. You must take the responsibility to acquire information, digest and use it to understand what you can.

I think my films are very English. That certain emotional distance, interest in the world, interest in irony. These are all deeply English propositions.

I've always been fascinated by Eisenstein.

There are, after all, approaches to be made other than the dependable routes that massage sentimental expectations and provide easy opportunities for emotional identification.

Bill Viola is worth ten Scorseses.