Cinema is not a playground for Sharon Stone.

I've always been fascinated by maps and cartography. A map tells you where you've been, where you are, and where you're going -- in a sense it's three tenses in one.

We all know that we're going to die, but we don't know when. That's not a blessing, that's a curse.

Since Caesar, we know his historians are liars. The good writers get read. Bad history doesn't get read.

As you probably know, I'm often accused of intellectual exhibitionism and all forms of elitism. Although I can understand this point of view, it's a rather wasted argument because, if we regard areas of information as being elite and therefore somehow not usable, it means our centre-ground of activity becomes very, very impoverished.

I admit that death is not just about you, it's also about the people who love you.

Americans don't understand what metaphor in cinema is about. They're extremely good at making straightforward, linear narrative movies, which entertain superbly. But they very rarely do anything else.