That's a heavy word, but picking up a newspaper every day, how can you not despair at what's happening in the world, and how we're represented as human beings? The disappointments and corruption are dismaying at every level. And the biggest source of evil is of course religion... Everyone are tearing each other apart in the name of their personal god. And the irony is, by definition, they're probably worshipping the same god.
I was always amazed about how much I could finally squeeze into a thirty second commercial.
I watched Someone to Watch Over Me the other night. I thought it was a really good movie. It's a great movie.
People say I pay too much attention to the look of a movie but for God's sake, I'm not producing a Radio 4 Play for Today, I'm making a movie that people are going to look at.
Some people like to do everything always the same thing. That's another way: To do the same thing.
That's part of the policy: To keep switching gears.
I always say to people when I'm trying to get something going, bringing on other producers or other directors, "You can think of 95 reasons why not to make a movie. You've got to address why you want to make the movie and get it done. Just do it." I tend to live by that rule.
I think if I'm going to do a science fiction, I'm going to go down a new path that I want to do.
It's the best of the best. No film can hope to top it(Kubrick's 2001).
I believe all of us only use one tenth of our brain. I know people who use one per cent only!
I went to Art College and during the summer I made a movie with my brother. I got hold of a little camera, wrote a script and dragged my brother, Tony, out of bed to help me (which he did not like), so that we could shoot a film every day for six weeks. It was made for £65 and it was called Boy On A Bicycle.
There's great wine from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile and, of course, California. But there's nothing like a really great French wine, they're so well balanced. The better the wine, the less you feel the effects I think.
A good year for me is when me and my family are in good health. I'm just lucky to have good years doing something I like to do.
I think going into space would be like going deep into the ocean, like 5,000 meters down. When you go down that far, it's just awfully black. There's not much there except mud and some particles. I imagine space would be a similar thing. The only difference is you're hoping to bump into some sort of intelligent extraterritorial being.
It's everything and I always make decisions about the cast.
And I maintain good relationships with all the studios so I've never been bullied into any cut, frankly.
I knew exactly what to do on Alien, it was funny.
My career seems to be a career of non-specific subjects which are all over the place.
I also love Australian movies. I love Muriel's Wedding - I've seen in six times. Baz Luhrmann's best movie is strictly ballroom... without question.
I do like to make films with a political theme, but sometimes it's nice simply to make people laugh. That's the hardest thing to do in fact.
I'm very competitive. I just go with what engages or fascinates me in my work and that's it. I have no definition; I just love to do it.
Well, not totally because over the years I've probably done 2,700 commercials. So, I'm always ticking. And in a way that was a huge advantage because I was able to take my time choosing my film subjects because I wasn't relying on the fear of not being able to work.
Politics is very interesting and always leads to conflict.
There is an access to... people can now afford very high quality technology, where you can have a very good reproduction of a large picture on a large screen at home. People go out less. There's all kinds of reasons. I don't know that it's going to stay that way but, I think also, we've got to start making better movies.
Digital is a different world because you are sitting at home and a hi tech piece of equipment today is within reach of most people, so they are watching a pretty hi tech version of whatever you've done.
