“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.”

Well, if you ask any filmmaker how they got into it, everyone came a different route.

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

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’.

And I’m not so in love with making people mad that I want to live my life around it.

The world’s pretty trippy. I just like to travel around and see what’s out there.

[on sexual politics] The Golden Rule works for men as written, but for women it should go the other way around. We need to do unto ourselves as we do unto others.

I never understood actors who could just wait around.

I only sound intelligent when there’s a good script writer around.

What comes around goes around.

With the Sonder music, I pull a lot from what’s around me.

I’ve sparred with lots of people and played around with everybody.