Film is one small voice in a great cacophony of noise from newspapers, from the television, from social media, so it can have a little dent, you know? It can help to create a climate of opinion.
The BBC is very aware of its role in shaping people's consciousness… it's manipulative and deeply political.
Iain Duncan Smith and his regime, they wanted to make the poor suffer and then humiliated them by telling them that their poverty was their own fault and, to demonstrate that, if you're not up to mark then you're sanctioned and the money stops.
I've been going to Labour party meeting for over 50 years.
History is for all of us to discuss. All history is our common heritage to discuss and analyze. The founding of the state of Israel, for example, based on ethnic cleansing is there for us all to discuss.
There's a heresy which is perpetuated by film school that to be a great director you have to write your own stuff.
Preparation is really important for actors; they need to know who they are, where they're from, and the experiences up to the point that we make the film.
Those in power always try to distort reality, to suit their needs and keep things safe.
Paul Laverty is a wonderful writer and we've worked together for a quarter of a century.
Surprise is something that's very difficult to act.
I challenge the idea that films about rich people are escapism and films about working class people are dour and sad. I find the opposite's the case.
Every four or five films we've made a film that has gone on TV first. It's quite nice to tap into the TV audience, but it is nice to see it on the big screen too.
The worst thing about being a freelance film director is that you're scrambling around Soho with a briefcase, looking for somewhere to make phone calls. That was my position for 10 years.
If all political parties are committed to the role of the free market, the politicians act as, I don't know, as traffic policemen; they stand outside the ring and let the real decisions be slugged out by entrepreneurs. That doesn't seem to me a proper democracy.
What strikes me - we're apparently at the mercy of an economic system that will never work and the big question is, how do we change it, not how do we put up with it.
The Holocaust is as real a historical event as World War II itself and not to be challenged.
The old Craven Cottage stadium at Fulham, before they built the river stand; that was a great place to watch football. When the football wasn't very good, people used to turn around and watch the boats on the river.
I think the Norweigan model of municipalities owning cinemas and being programmed by people who know about films is a good one.
The most enjoyable things are the old eighteenth-century terraces that are still standing, that domestic architecture.
The thing is, it's much easier to be a rightwing populist than a leftwing one, because the left always have to explain why things are the way they are. The right can just blame the foreigners.
