People are always talking about the dumbing down of the country.

One filmmaker makes films that are deep, intellectual, profound and confrontational. And the other one makes purely vacuous, escapist films. I'm not sure the one who makes escapist films is making a poorer contribution than the one who makes the deeper films.

Human existence is a brutal experience to me... it's a brutal, meaningless experience - an agonizing, meaningless experience with some oases, delight, some charm and peace, but these are just small oases. Overall, it is a brutal, terrible experience, and so it salvation is what can you do to alleviate the agony of the human condition, the human predicament? That is what interests me the most.

If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative.

I'm not anti-social. I'm just not social.

His lack of education is more than compensated for by his keenly developed moral bankruptcy.

A general philosophy of the female characters in my films is they all want something to believe in, and not having anything.