“As a director, my job is to protect. I protect scripts, actors, cameramen, designers.”

“Audiences aren't fools - their judgement really is important. And the true heroes of films are the investors. They take the risk, after all.”

“Film schools didn't exist when I was growing up. I learned by working with clever people. Good writers and cinematographers.”

“I can't write; I don't think I'm even particularly good at telling a writer what's good or what's missing. So, actually having someone who can do that is a godsend.”

“I don't generally believe in people being knighted.”

“I had a somewhat charmed life. I was brought up at the BBC. I did meet so many people cleverer than myself in those years. Often, I was slapped down and made to feel not good enough.”

“I have people around me. I have a semi-permanent crew. If I make a film, they just turn up. They don't even invite themselves. They don't ask if they can come - they just turn up!”

“I like a lot of takes. I just go on until the actors get it right.”

“I like making films about different cultures. I'm interested in things that I've never encountered before. I try to put myself in the audience's position.”

“I never expected to become a director. It never occurred to me to come to America, to Hollywood. It's all been a wonderful accident. I'm still amazed every time I finish a film.”

“I never thought I was very good at developing material. I grew up at the BBC where they sent you scripts.”

“I remember reading the script for 'Dangerous Liaisons' and thinking that I could quite happily spend the rest of my life watching this film; the story and the writing were so wonderful.”

“I teach film directing, inasmuch as you can. It's not really possible to teach film direction, but I sit there as a sort of testimony of experience and know-how, I suppose.”

“I want my films to get audiences. I am not interested in making them just for myself.”

“I wouldn't want to make the same film every time. I get easily bored.”

“I'm a Republican, but I like the Queen. Like everyone else, I'm sentimental about the Queen.”

“I'm from the Midlands. I lived in London for 50 years, but I'm not sure that I think of myself as a Londoner. I can see that we're all metropolitan, whether we are Londoners or not.”

“I'm Jewish; I'm not religious at all, and I wouldn't pretend to know anything about Catholic politics.”

“It never crossed my mind to make a film about Muhammad Ali or the Queen or any of them! They just come out of the blue.”

“I've always found poverty a source of strength.”

“Oh, I live in London. So, whether I like it or not, I am a member of the metropolitan elite. If I were anywhere else in the country, I'd hate me.”

“The only way you can learn about making films is by making them, by putting your stamp on the thing.”

“There's one thing now that I experience every day when I'm making a film. I get up and think to myself, 'Am I going to be able to do it today?' I figure as long as I have that fear, I'll be alright.”

“To be successful at anything, you need the right to fail, not just occasionally.”

“Truth is quite constricting, in a way. You endlessly see at the start of a film 'This is a true story'.”

“When I go and teach, it sort of opens me up in some way. And when you're open, you're more receptive.”