American movies are often very good at mining those great underlying myths that make films robustly travel across class, age, gender, culture.

I decided to be a filmmaker when I was 12. I had utter clarity that this would be my life.

I think English film is very embarrassed by patriotism, generally.

I mean, we've all had those dreams where, you know, we try to cry out and our voice won't come.

I think the thumb print on the throat of many people is childhood trauma that goes unprocessed and unrecognized.

There's something about being cerebral, intellectual, and yet emotionally repressed [in being villain]. If you think someone's doing this [bad] stuff and they're in complete control, that's more scary than if they're out of control.

I appear to be drawn to iconic characters and what they reflect back to our cultures.