The power of a volcano when it erupts is so evident, so visible, so palpable.

One of the most original and poetic works of cinema made anywhere in the seventies.

The volcano itself wasn't that interesting, but the man who refused to be evacuated - the only one of 75,000 people - was what set the tone for the film ["Encounters at the End of the World"] that we made together [with Clive Oppenheimer] ten years later.

When the camera is looking back at our planet Earth, it's the tiniest of specks somewhere out there in the universe. So we do have a new sense of proportion. Of course the volcanoes and the magma under us just remind us of that.

Someone like Jean-Luc Godard is for me intellectual counterfeit money when compared to a good kung fu film.

I know whenever it comes to be really dysfunctional and vile and base and hostile on screen, I'm good at that.

I don't care whether the person is guilty or not guilty. It's not my business to establish guilt or innocence. It's a court of law that does that and a jury does that, but not me.