“It doesn’t matter what the technology is – no one will watch a Peter Greenaway film anyway.”

Making a film is so hard that if you don’t have your main actors going along with the ride with the rest of the crew it can make your life very difficult.

I’ve had some fantastically good people help me make the movies.

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.

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.

It’s never really that much fun for me to do movies anyway, because you – you know, you have to get up very early in the morning and you have to go in and you spend a lot of time waiting around.

Being brave doesn’t mean never being afraid, you know. It means going for it anyway because you know it’s the right thing to do.

Eat well, stay fit, die anyway.

You do it anyway. Why? Because you no longer want to suffer. Because you’re willing to be disturbed. You’re willing to be amazed. You’re willing to be surprised.

I was pretty much predominantly raised by women, as they make up most of my family anyway.

Bravery is what you can do in the face of things that hurt and scare you, but you do it anyway.

By the time I’m 40, interplanetary travel will be common. Nobody will want to talk to me at that age, anyway.

Pray to Him anyway you like, He can even hear the footfall of an ant.