I like the idea that I'm making things that people might think and argue about..

My children are lovely. They're perfect..

Making films can be absolutely fantastic, but it can also be incredibly dull. You spend the whole day sitting by yourself in your trailer and then yo….

I'd love to do some comedy. Particularly French comedy, which I know sounds like a contradiction in terms..

Boarding school is a wicked thing..

French culture takes ageing very seriously. There's much less ageism than in Anglo-Saxon countries..

There's something incredibly sexy about sand and sweat and dunes photographed like women's backs..

French is a foreign language, but I've been speaking it since I was 18 so it's second nature to me..

I just don't see very many films. Because I make them..

'The English Patient' was a huge turning point in my career and my life; it became this huge thing. But the whole Oscar build-up got completely out o….

The Cannes film festival is about big-budget films but also remarkable films made in different political regimes by film-makers with little resources..

People will now go to films with subtitles, you know. They're not afraid of them. It's one of the upsides of text-messaging and e-mail. Maybe the onl….

I have a feeling I will work for a long, long time. I like it a lot... and I don't know. I just have a feeling that I'm going to be one of those peop….

I do a film because I like the story and I want to give life to a character - I don't necessarily have to agree with the director..

With the theatre, your whole day is geared towards the evening's show, and that's the job. People usually go to work about 9 and come home around 5, ….

I'm not one of those famous people flying round the world emoting over every catastrophe. I'm too feeble..

I think the sheer number of pop stars has kind of drowned out, somewhat, our interest. We're just submerged..

I'm not at all fed up with British films, but I am fed up with playing upper-class people..

I can't get into all that physical stuff of having to have flawless skin... Sometimes you see people and it looks like someone's got an eraser and ma….

At school, I always wanted to belong to a gang, and no one would have me. So I'd have make my own gang, but with everybody else's leftovers..

Successful films are very dangerous things..