Actually I like working kind of fast, because if you got it, why bother doing it over and over?

It's really rare for film directors to be that interested in things other than themselves.

Actually I like working kind of fast, because if you got it, why bother doing it over and over?

Nowadays people don't know how to handle it if all the ends aren't tied up and they're not told what to think in films. And if they're challenged, they think it's something wrong with the film.

I like working on things that are very different and that involve different disguises.

It is not hard to feel like an outsider. I think we have all felt like that at one time or another.

Actors aren't stupid, mostly, and if there's a sensibility and an aesthetic that a director's going for, if you're aware of that too, you can do things to help that.

For example, Americans seem reluctant to take on Shakespeare because you don't think you're very good at it - which is rubbish. You're missing out here.

I come more to Scotland than I ever used to, so I feel more connected to it, more part of the zeitgeist. You know when you realize you have a choice and I'm choosing my homeland. It's funny: when you get older these things creep up to you.

I don't feel I'm a compulsive person. I multitask. I'm really well-organised, and I have lots of people to help me.

I had to be a grown-up when I should have been a little boy, and now that I'm a grown-up my little-boyness has exploded out of me. I've lived my life backwards.

I like the tragedies way more than the comedies because they're so universal.

I think you can be as big as you like as long as you mean it. I really do.

I'm Scottish first, and it's odd to hear that I'm a Scottish-American.

It's about how you exist as a person in the world, and the idea that your work is more important than you as a person is a horrible, horrible message. I always think about a little gay boy in Wisconsin or a little lesbian in Arkansas seeing someone like me, and if I cannot be open in my life, how on earth can they?

Kids are more genuine. When they come up and want to talk to you, they don't have an agenda. It's more endearing and less piercing to your aura.

Macbeth was the first play I ever read.

My mum always told me I was precious, while my dad always told me I was worthless. I think that's a good grounding for a balanced life.

Once in a while it's good to challenge yourself in a way that's really daunting.

Pantomime is a big thing in the cultural calendar of my country, you know. So subtlety's not my forte.

Performing a one-man Macbeth feels like the greatest challenge.

Romeo is the most misunderstood character in literature, I think. He's hardcore to play because he's displaying the characteristics of Hamlet at the beginning, and, well, then everything else happens.

Sometimes people get really sniffy about the films you choose if you've done more dramatic projects or you're classically trained.

Sometimes with people I know, they're playing the hunky action guy and there's resistance to them coming out because it's so connected to straight masculinity. There's a plastic kind of movie star who has a very short shelf with very small kind of ambition. I see that but I still don't agree with it.

With 'Urban Secrets,' I just really liked the idea of wandering around chatting to people.

You do get really exhausted doing films. You work such long hours, and after a while, things can get out of perspective, just like if anyone's tired, things get on top of them.

You'll see Dame Judi Dench in a Bond film, in Shakespeare and then starring in her own sitcom. You never see that here with Meryl Streep.

It's actually quite a good ethos for life: go into the unknown with truth,commitment, and openness and mostly you'll be okay.

Checking the results of a decision against its expectations shows executives what their strengths are, where they need to improve, and where they lack knowledge or information.

Happy or unhappy, families are all mysterious. We have only to imagine how differently we would be described - and will be, after our deaths - by each of the family members who believe they know us.

I'm obsessed with media and the way audiences can become creative participants.

I didn't grow up playing video games. I grew up catching crawdads in the creek and minnows and lizards and snakes.

I've never taken the steps to be 'successful': I've never had a manager or signed to a publishing house.

It feels like I could go outside with a bikini thong on right now.

Groups break up because they never got across what they wanted to do personally, and they have creative differences, and egos start to clash.

No one will expect the British Government or the Government of India to give way to threats of violence, disorder and chaos; and, indeed, representatives of large sections of Indian opinion have expressly warned us that we must not do so.

You can't invest in natural gas on a daily basis. It's too volatile. But if you think of natural gas as a long-term holding, then you push your profit horizon out. A long-term time horizon would be at least two years.

The great thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving.

I think it's wrong to compromise your values to fit in with the social climate in Washington, D.C. When it comes to spending, I'm not compromising. I don't care who, what, when or where, I'm not compromising.

A split second is nothing compared to twenty-four hours. On God's clock you're in the middle of your millisecond. Compared to eternity, what is seventy, eighty, ninety years?

When in doubt always choose love and gratitude.

Sexuality is an expression of our spirituality. Sex makes you get real.

Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced.

I am too insecure to crash early. I feel life will pass me by while I'm sleeping.

We think too small. Like the frog at the bottom of the well. He thinks the sky is only as big as the top of the well. If he surfaced, he would have an entirely different view.

Let me do all the good I can, to all the people I can, as often as I can, for I shall not pass this way again.

Grandchildren have taught me how important the future is. I try to look through their eyes and envision what's in their imagination. What's the world going to look like when they're my age? That really does take a huge imagination.

I loved the world of imagination.

I grew up in a house where my father encouraged my brother and me to fail. I specifically remember coming home and saying, 'Dad, Dad, I tried out for this or that and I was horrible,' and he would high-five me and say, 'Way to go.'