“Period recreation is very difficult unless you make a black and white movie.”

So fine that the Irish don’t even acknowledge that it exists.

If you’d been where I’d been… if you’d seen the things I’d seen!… you… you’d be me… Or someone following me around.

Have a go. Anybody can do it.

I was once described by one of my critics as an aesthetic fascist.

I’m a pluralist. I’ve always argued that as many different films as possible should be made.

Rain is also very difficult to film, particularly in Ireland because it’s quite fine.

A Great Movie Evolves when Everybody Has the Same Vision in Their Heads.

The films that I do tend to polarise people’s views.

I’ve always been completely autocratic. I’ve never learned to be diplomatic or democratic.

Personally I am very much against the death penalty for several reasons.

Most directors have little lists in their heads of people they really want to work with.

Film-making is a physically hard job.

I always argued against the auteur theory; films are a collaborative art form.

I turn on the TV sometimes, start watching something and think.

A lot of directors prefer the solitude of the editing process, but I revel in the craziness of what a film set is.

I’m always afraid someone’s going to tap me on the shoulder one day and say, ‘Back to North London’.

The only way in which one can make endurable man’s inhumanity to man.

It’s up to us to make sure we’re listening to improve our chances for success-if not this time, next time.

I think the Internet has a way of coaching you into this state of mind where you think that every step you make needs to completely supersede the last.

You tend to work out what makes them tick, what they respond to.

Making music is still what keeps a fire going on in me.

I think I’ve always approached making albums pretty much the same way.

In all planning you make a list and you set priorities.

The second squirms and wriggles like a bluefish in a bay. The first is unyielding, predetermined. The second makes up its mind as it goes along.