We're a strange animal, so often destroying what we love for selfish ends, and yet tantalized by the sense that there are other choices if only we had strength to make them. In the politics of 400 years ago, we find the same questions we battle with today.

I think a film should have a gestation period of at least two or three years.

I try to address my audiences intelligently. The man in the street counts, but sometimes he forgets that he counts.

When you look at our world, the truth is that we're all under the influence of politics.

I don't really say much about reviewers. It's a very tough job to get all of the depth of a movie all at once.

Making the City Of Joy gave me the best political education of my life. It became a wrestling match between an Englishman who had gradually ceased to be a Marxist, and a culture that was becoming more Marxist by the day.

The actor is concerned with his own bit of it, but the director's somehow trying to work the whole thing into a much bigger picture. It's like conducting an orchestra.