You evolve in the ways in which you are precious. When you are the director, you are also continuing to write on the floor as you go along.

Wisdom is not having illusions, especially anything in your own mind that elevates you above others.

I think the only real referent for anybody writing drama is probably Hamlet. You have the most extreme tragic drama, this sort of blood-boltered thing, but it's also very funny, which is simply a matter of the playwright being alive and observant and entertaining, and understanding not only the world but what will play.

It wasn't just British gangster films that really did for me as a kid, personally, it was British films in general.

I have no reason as a director to have films go up in versions that I don't like. My only experience of film after ten years is honestly that if a picture doesn't get second-guessed you're looking at four Oscars, and if a picture does get second-guessed, you're not. I've got an advanced degree in that lesson.

Most films go out like skydivers who have had their chutes packed by a committee of blind schizophrenics.

I learned from Ridley [Scott] how to come out of the trailer at a fast walk and make your decisions and keep it going. We were very much on time and under budget, as they say. That was a very important thing for me and very satisfactory.