You can't always do exactly what you want, and often compromises have to be made.

You begin to understand, as a filmmaker, that there are different ways of approaching things. Everything doesn't have to be quick cut, like MTV.

I wanted to actually make people look at a painting. We don't look at paintings that much. We glance at them.

I think there's a real problem if you're making a film - some people have done whether it be about Jackson Pollock or about Picasso - it's difficult for actors, because they have to impersonate a person whose image is very strong in our memories or in our consciousness. It's something that's very tricky, I think.

I've got a very wide taste in art. I like Russian icon painters. I like Salvador Dali. It's like music. Sometimes you want to hear Led Zeppelin, and sometimes you want to hear Stravinsky. It just depends.

You tend to get a script and you push it toward being the kind of film you want to make.

If you come out of British TV, they're kind of saying, "Here's the keys to the kingdom. You are now going to go off and become a moviemaker. If you do really well, then the world is your oyster.