On the other hand, I view the whole matter from a cosmic perspective. I don't take a position. I believe that there are no more positions to take, no certainties, no facts. Many people find this confusing about my films; they say I am hiding out behind irony. But from a cosmic viewpoint, it is eternally unimportant whether one lives or not.

American actors are coy. We all have pricks and cunts, or are you different from the rest of us?

There's more religion in my little finger than there is in the pope. But no, I don't believe in God. I am an athiest. A Darwinian evolutionist.

I want to regard my public as infinitely intelligent, as understanding notions of the suspension of disbelief and as realising all the time that this is not a slice of life, this is openly a film.

Churchill was a good writer but a bad historian.

Eisenstein was a good editor. I was trained as a film editor, and I've no doubt that the editor is key to a film.

I got in trouble with the stern-faced Russians who didn't want me to create a guy who is mortal.