Mike Leigh

"My work requires acting at its most committed - it demands actors of enormous resilience, but also intelligence and wit. It doesn't work for narcissistic or selfish actors."

"The whole thing about making films in an organic film on location is that it's not all about characters, relationships and themes, it's also about place and the poetry of place. It's about the spirit of what you find, the accidents of what you stumble across."

"My work is about life as you and I experience it. You're either lucky or you're not lucky either your relationship works or it doesn't."