I was an English-literature major, and that's all about stories and narratives.

(Human) beings, in Pagan times would kind of like, listen to the stories and, they could kind of, identify - . They were, like, bigger than them and more successful than them or more beautiful, but they had these human fallibilities. Which is like celebrities now. It's like, 'oh, she's in rehab. Oh, she's unfaithful. Oh, they're divorced. Oh, she's anorexic. Oh, he's had a nose job.' You know, whatever it might be.

There's not much room for eccentricity in Hollywood, and eccentricity is what's sexy in people.

You know, you can't see or touch and isn't embodied. But they were all fallible, the Gods. And they would kind of rise and fall. You know, they all, like Achilles, Icarus, you know, they all had their high points and their low points.

I was advised by an American agent when I was about 19 to change my surname.

Now we're in a recession, and at war, so people want to see this chihuahua movie, The Fountain. To be told to come to terms with death, that death is the road to all - it's a very intense subject. But as with movies that are very unusual, that have come to be thought of as very interesting, one finds out at the time that they were not understood. So who knows? We'll see. A lot of people really, really loved it, and a lot of people didn't get it.

If I'm just in dungarees, I don't think I would intimidate anyone.