I'm not famous; I am simply very well-known to certain people. Famous is something different.
Analog is more beautiful than digital, really, but we go for comfort.
You always want to come back with an image that's interesting visually, and you hope to get something from the person you photograph that's different than other images you know of these people.
I am a village boy, and Amsterdam for me was always the big town.
Generally my focus has been on people who make things, whether it's writers or directors or painters or musicians.
If you make something with love and, you know, passion and you tell a real story, I think it will always find an audience somehow, you know.
I'm not educated as a filmmaker, so it's quite a jump for me.
There's only one music video that had an emotional impact on me, and that's 'Hurt' by Johnny Cash. That's exceptional. There is no music video I can think of apart from that one that really reaches you inside.
I don't want to knock photography, and I don't feel that film is up there but photography isn't. I think they're next to each other really, you know. There's an incredible strength to a still picture. Or there can be an incredible strength to a still picture that can outlive you. That can outlive a film.
I love body language.
Working with actors is something I've never done before. I find it tremendous. It's hard work.
A lot of scripts that I was given I didn't feel were right for me, because I didn't feel anything for them - I didn't feel like I was going to change in life and start directing.
Once you make decisions, you can't go back, but in photography, that process can continue. With film, you have to eliminate all the possibilities and make the one possibility work the best for you, so you have to become very creative with the direction you've chosen.
I wanted to move away from Holland for my work because I felt that things would be better for me in England. But when I heard Joy Division's 'Unknown Pleasures', that pushed me towards making the move and making it real. I met them within 12 days of moving to England.
I think Amsterdam is to Holland what New York is to America in a sense. It's a metropolis, so it's representative of Holland, but only a part of it - you know, it's more extreme, there's more happening, it's more liberal and more daring than the countryside in Holland is.
I've finally become an old guy.
I've gotten used to not looking too far into the future; it's best when you can begin each day anew.
I don't want to continue to do what I did when I was 20. I would like to continue to develop myself and not continue to hang around with bands.
With a film, you try to keep your vision in it. I think with 'The American' and 'Control' I managed to do that.
The really simple approach to photography is a great balance to making the films.
