I'm not really a director for hire. You read these scripts and go, 'This is a really great script, but Paul Greengrass would make this so much better….

I have never been motivated by money in my life. You can't make choices based on what the financial return might be..

Most theater methodology is predicated on the idea of repeated actions. That's what you work toward. Having the actor repeat the same moment eight ti….

The really successful work in England tends to be working-class writers telling working-class stories. The film industry has been slow to wake up to ….

There are a few writers that one has a relationship with that means, basically, you do whatever they say. One is Caryl Churchill, and the other is Da….

Every now and then I have to teach directing. The thing about the theatre is that the most important thing you can do as a director is to make sure t….

I'm a theatre person, that's who I am. I'm happy to make sojourns into the world of movies but I'm basically a theatre director that potters off and ….

I love changing. I hate it when people try to box me in to a relationship or in a work context. Any situation where I feel boxed in freaks me out. An….

I've never been to Hollywood. I can count the number of times I've been to Los Angeles on my hands. I've never made a movie there and I've never been….

They're a redefinition of boredom... the most important thing you need to know about an awards show is where is the nearest smoking opportunity..

There has been one defining production for me in each decade..

At school, I decided I wanted to be a director and then I went out and spent the rest of my adult life trying to be a director. It was really clear t….

With journalism, films always have to be to do with some personal statement of your own. As a general rule, I resist that. In the States, a question ….

When I got married, my mother was very surprised. She said: What on earth is going on? I thought you were gay?.

The culturally specific, in particular, the American porch play that American writers have cherished and loved for many years in terms of their new w….

Actually, to be honest, this is a useful time to not be knowing what I'll be doing in 2013 or 2014, because really, for the last however many years, ….

England is strictly class-based. What's surprising is how many films are still made with a load of people in silly frocks running around gardens and ….

The truth of the matter is, every film is imperfect. It's the nature of the beast. One of the things that people ask me all the time is, what's the d….

Ring up your parents and ring up your kids and tell them that you love them..

You have to trust your own instincts about what is appropriate and what is not appropriate and trust your own feelings about what you can and can't s….

I love test screenings. Some directors don't, I know. But I love it. I think it's because I come from the theatre and in the theatre, previews are wh….