When I was a kid in London there was just something about the light and there's something about the way London went onto film in those days, whether it was Technicolor or Technicolor plus the flatness of the light, or whatever.

I don't think Roger Ebert has ever mentioned a screenplay. He assigns every auctorial move to the director, which makes some sense since the director has run a one-off game, but if Hamlet were written last year and had been only performed once as a film, and it didn't come off well on screen for whatever reason, it would be gone forever as a literary work, and never would have been considered as one.

When I'm shooting, as much as writing, I see edited footage in my mind, so I work that way, and it's economical.

There were days when you would get the TV listings from The Globe and The Herald. Video was out, but nobody could afford it...expect for my uncle George, who was a second father to me, and had every film in the world, and every book.

I'm not a precious text protector, or anything like that, you know, because it's a much more vital form than that. You have to rock.

I'm interested in stories about human beings. I don't care where or when they are set.

Casting is all about availability, as much as anything else.