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'm a big action junkie. I grew up on the '80s action movies - the bad ones and the good ones.

There's a whole bunch of unfinished stuff. Then I've got books of lyrics. I find it frustrating to finish a song and not be able to record it... so I don't write a million songs.

When I was presenting 'Animal Hospital,' the grey started to creep into my beard and moustache. I used my wife's mascara to darken it.