I find the world more absurd now than I did when I was a kid.

A script is utterly useless in and of itself; it's only of any worth the minute your actors, your designers, your directors come into being.

Every film I've ever worked on, and that includes 'Braveheart' and 'Trainspotting,' I've always witnessed a director having a breakdown. Every director will have a day, without exception, where they just can't do it anymore, they don't know what to say to their cameraman, their cast. It's the sign of real, physical exhaustion.

Truth is I don't think God on a daily basis. I think politics, science.

I was on the set of 'Braveheart' and my mate says to me, 'Do you think this film will be any good?' And I really meant this, too, I told him 'Let me put it this way - It won't win any awards.' Cut to: five Oscars.

I hate it when something is set in 1967 and every piece of furniture was made in 1967. No! If it's set in 1967, people have furniture given to them by their grandmother, which she bought in 1932!

A lot of actors aren't particularly good directors. And they're not particularly good with other actors. That's kind of a fallacy.