You're not turning the picture over to a system or a process, you are the process, and the most important thing is to have things exactly as you want them.

If you need someone to come out of the sewer with a wire you don't hire someone who needs laborious collective instruction. You let someone do his job, whether he's a focus puller or a surgeon.

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

London matters to me because it's the center of what I do for a living and has been since Tudor times.

Look at what people are trying to conceal, and you’ll see that they’re revealing everything.

You don't write for actors. Actors come for characters you've made up.

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.