I don't think Hollywood was trying to do anything with me. In fact they lost interest pretty quick. I think I got lucky briefly in the '90s and it just so happened that those movies were the opportunities that came my way. Then it just kind of stopped.

I wanted to keep exploring... I'm not about to choose a series of movies in which I can use the same bag of tricks and style that I used in the first film.

I don't think of it as a competition - which might surprise you given the way movies are reported constantly.

The perceived wisdom is that people do not go in large numbers to black-and-white movies anymore - which is a great shame but I'd love to make a black-and-white movie one day.

It's fun to go to the movies and be scared.

I've been in enough movies to know that when you're on the set and you start shooting you're looking at playback and you get a sense of what it's going to be like.

I want to try and work in different genres with different types of actors on small movies and big movies.

James Cagney Steve McQueen I loved all those guys. I grew up loving the movies but had no desire to be in them.

All that running around in my underwear put money in my pockets. I can focus on working in interesting movies without having to worry about supporting myself.

And anyway it's only movies. to stop me I think they'll ahve to shoot me in the head.

When you kill somebody in the movies it matters whereas in literature it can be allegorical.

When I started doing movies every crew member was older than me.

I love the first two X-Men movies because I thought that Bryan Singer did such a great job. He elevated that whole genre. He's a very talented director.

I like to go from mainstream movies to more artsy films. I don't sign on for the money. Maybe I should but I don't. There's always a good reason for doing something.

Everybody gets typecast in movies but you have to make wise choices. I'd say around 90 percent of movie casting is about the way you look so you have to fight that. If producers had their way I'd only be in action films but I'm interested in a more varied career than that.

I love scary movies. The Shining and Don't Look Now are two of the best.

I want to work with great directors. I want to work on good material with good actors. I've probably done 20 movies at this point and a lot of independents. It's been an incredible ride and I love it and I'm just going to keep going and doing what I'm doing.

I use to watch like maybe three or four movies five days out of the week. I was a movie buff but I really didn't know what it was like behind the scenes or the whole political process of it.

I didn't know this about myself but when 'Pirates of the Caribbean' came out I realised that I didn't enjoy a huge amount of recognition. I didn't react to it well but I think life is about finding out who you are and what you like. So I started doing independent movies and art-house films instead.

Well the thing about great fictional characters from literature and the reason that they're constantly turned into characters in movies is that they completely speak to what makes people human.

I manage to hide in my movies.

All studio movies are the middle of the Bell curve. The only way to do something is to do it yourself. And the only way to do that is to not take any money from anyone or take as little money as possible from anyone and that's it.

The first two movies I directed failed when I was 21 and 23 and that was the greatest thing that could have happened.

American movies are often very good at mining those great underlying myths that make films robustly travel across class age gender culture.