The time it would take me to write a screenplay it would take me the time to make two films. I would rather make the movies and I'm a better moviemaker than I a would be writer.

I want to make films about the human condition, what we're doing to the world or ourselves.

How can you look at the galaxy and not feel insignificant?

I think one of the successes of Gladiator is how we manage to turn on a dime the character from one thing to another where you believe he is one thing and he is something very different.

I believe all of us only use one tenth of our brain. I know people who use one per cent only!

I watched Someone to Watch Over Me the other night. I thought it was a really good movie. It's a great movie.

You step forward and make it real for a start. You choose a sensible moment in history. Funnily enough, England was bankrupt and the moment is the death of Richard The Lionheart... Richard takes an arrow in the neck collecting a small debt from a small castle on his way home from the Crusades because he's penniless.