Mike Leigh

Given the choice of Hollywood or poking steel pins in my eyes, I'd prefer steel pins.

But films should be voyeuristic. What else is a film if you're not snooping into somebody else's lives?

My work requires acting at its most committed - it demands actors of enormous resilience, but also intelligence and wit. It doesn't work for narcissistic or selfish actors.

I love Hindi films.

I think the main thing I remembered throughout all of filming it was just that she just was extremely self-destructive. I think everybody can relate to that a little bit. She doesn't like herself.

I think violence in a cinematic context can be, if handled in a certain way, very seductive.