I compose the frame literally with the camera. Unless it makes a story point.

Akira Kurosawa is the pictorial William Shakespeare of our time.

I think producers are more interested in backing concepts than directors and writers. I don't think that's the right way of making a decision about whether you're going to back a film or not.

I made 'Saving Private Ryan' for my father. He's the one who filled my head with war stories when I was growing up.

Before statehood was achieved, Syria and Egypt had their tanks and military equipment lined up to invade Tel Aviv and destroy it; but the Israelis scrambled together an air force, some of it from old Second World War Messerschmidts, and the invasion was halted.

I have made almost as many films in England as I have in America. I will come back to England again and again.

You can't start a movie by having the attitude that the script is finished, because if you think the script is finished, your movie is finished before the first day of shooting.