I got to work with my wife, Lena Olin, for the first time, which was great. I thought it might be difficult in some way to talk to one's wife in a different way but it was so not forced.

A film that is bleached tends to have a more realistic quality.

I am always more interested in performance and character depiction, and my direction says as much.

But I notice that there is a lack of darkness in my movies and I don't know where that comes from.

I was always attracted by the European way of life, but I am deeply Swedish.

Cinema has become a global economy, totally international.

I always try to preserve my cinematographic style, even while I work in the US. I wish to always be European.

I made all their videos, apart from the last two, so if you ever see an Abba video on TV then it's my stuff.

But now I wish I could back to Stockholm to make international films there.

I love mixing amateurs and professionals.

I love improvising.

I always need a couple of highlights to really spark the passion for a project.

I can't go back and label myself as an outcast because I was a pretty well-adjusted kid, but I can certainly relate to the feeling of being an outsider.

Kevin, as the whole cast is, just wonderful people and great people, and people who are attracted to this kind of material and accepting the idea of going to Newfoundland and knowing the kind of lack of amenities.

ABBA: The Movie; I got a lot of grief for working on that.

My father would tell anyone who would listen that this dentist thing he was doing was not his passion; cinematography was.

It's just, for me, the natural standard: a woman should be able to decide over her own body.

I discovered the 7th art at home when I was kid, through Charlie Chaplin's movies and those of my father who shot documentaries. He was my biggest influence. So I took his camera and started shooting.

I got to work with my wife, Lena Olin, for the first time, which was great. I thought it might be difficult in some way to talk to one's wife in a different way but it was so not forced.

Many of the comedies I had made in Sweden were slightly based on semi-autobiographical experiences, so adapting novels was a very different experience.

My films do have characters who have trouble escaping the world around them.

My key interest in choosing scripts is character-driven stories, because there are so many stories that sacrifice character for plot.

It was important on The Shipping News to have my house far enough away from each location so I had this time in the morning to think about my shots and still remain open to surprises once I got to the set.

I imagined that it might be awkward to talk to your wife about her performance, so going into it I was a little nervous. But doing it was actually a wonderfully inspiring experience.

To see my wife getting inspired from my notes and thoughts, going in the direction I wanted, and have her surprise me with wonderful choices was a real treat.

I love involving actors at all levels - and they have to know that I want to hear their contributions, with dialogue, with story suggestions, with script changes, whatever.

My father was an amateur filmmaker who shot 8mm color documentaries.

I think I avoid stepping into sentimentality by trying to be as truthful as possible with performances.

I'm on this diet where you're supposed to eat only fish and meat.

I feel the need to work with my wife, Lena Olin, again.

I really want to have actors contribute their own ideas, with phrasings and ideas on all levels.

The principal rule of art is to please and to move. All the other rules were created to achieve this first one.

All enterprises that are entered into with indiscreet zeal may be pursued with great vigor at first, but are sure to collapse in the end.

Let me first state that I believe that marriage is a sacred union between one man and one woman.

Entropy theory is indeed a first attempt to deal with global form; but it has not been dealing with structure. All it says is that a large sum of elements may have properties not found in a smaller sample of them.

There is no need to do any housework at all. After the first four years the dirt doesn't get any worse.

The avantgarde are people who don't exactly know where they want to go, but are the first to get there.

I never taste the wine first in restaurants, I just ask the waiter to pour.

After the first miscarriage, I tried to take the attitude that it was my body's way of telling me that this pregnancy wasn't meant to be.

Before and during the first phase of the war his administration repeatedly maligned the UN but now, that Iraq has turned into a quagmire, it is asking the UN for help.

You look at the whole Human Rights questions, I happened to be there at just the right time when the country was awakening - this goes to the first question you asked - the whole country was awakening to a hundred years of injustice that hadn't been resolved yet.

So, first you have to be able to play with a metronome. Then you take your freedom. If you play in an orchestra, you got to watch the conductor, he is like a metronome, but it is more difficult because he can change rhythms.

My first figure was a SLAYER eagle. And the dragons and the tribals are all I have got.

We're parents first, and once you have kids, everybody knows that you have priority lists. Number one is your family and everything else just kind of finds its place.

Everything has to be pulling weight in a short story for it to be really of the first order.

But in the first Gulf war the United Kingdom was not under any threat from Iraq, and is still less so in the second one. Then there is no justification for obstructing freedom of information, particularly as nations have a right to know what their soldiers are being used for.

I sort of understood that when I first started: that you shouldn't repeat a success. Very often you're going to, and maybe the first time you do, it works. And you love it. But then you're trapped.

Working-class Americans have waited too long, close to a decade in fact, for an increase in the minimum wage. This has been the second longest period without a pay raise since the Federal minimum wage law was first enacted in 1938.

The first thing you do when you get out to center field is put up your finger and check the wind chill factor.