I am, in fact, Superman. Every morning I wake up and go into a telephone booth and change my costume, and then go to work.

I categorically resist this idea that films are supposed to be autobiographical and the only stories you tell are about your own life.

The great fun of doing new plays is that people have no idea what's going to happen next. That goes quite soon, as people start talking about it, and the only way you can keep hold of that is genuinely to keep changing it.

You go through a process of refinement and getting rid of the excesses of your early youth in terms of your excitement about what theatre can do.

I love test screenings. Some directors don't, I know. But I love it. I think it's because I come from the theatre and in the theatre, previews are where you really have to listen to the audience and really feel how they're responding. I found our test screenings incredibly useful.

England is strictly class-based. What's surprising is how many films are still made with a load of people in silly frocks running around gardens and talking in middle-class accents.

At school, I decided I wanted to be a director and then I went out and spent the rest of my adult life trying to be a director. It was really clear to me. So in that sense I was very lucky.