English culture is highly literary-based.

I have transmitted genetic material, all I have to do between my daughters' birth and my death is to decorate my life.

I imagine if you had built the Newton Memorial outside Paris ... it would have undoubtedly shown the violence of 1870 and 1914 and 1942 and 1945 - even 1968! Consider building a vast cube of stone merely to register the effects of violence - marked and dated as an indictment.

What do you want art to give you? What do you want cultural experience to give you? Shouldn't it be in-depth, profound experiences which have some satisfaction and can be retained in your four senses and your imagination for the rest of your life?

I don't believe in the deplorable notion of realism in the cinema: you can over-reach it, and it becomes as false as convention.

I think my films are always quite self-reflexive and always question 'why am I doing this, is this the right way to do it, what is cinema for, does it have a purpose?

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