I Seem To Have Been Able To

I'm A Much Better Filmmaker Than Painter. But Studying It Did Make Me Visually Acute And Taught Me Lessons Like Being Economic: Say Something Once And You Don't Have To Say It Again.

I Took Four Years Off After 'in The Cut' Because I Wanted To See Who I'd Be Without Work. I Even Tried Being A Hermit In The Wilderness In New Zealand. I Stayed In A Warden's Hut Two-and-a-half Hours Off The Routeburn Track Through The Fjords On The South Island. It Was Early Winter, So There Was No Electricity Or Running Water.

But Short Films Are Not Inferior, Just Different. I Think The Short Gives A Freedom To Film-makers. What's Appealing Is That You Don't Have As Much Responsibility For Storytelling And Plot. They Can Be More Like A Portrait, Or A Poem.

This Is The First Generation To Grow Up On Thatcher - It's A Different Ethos. It's Money Minded, And It's The Cult Of Yourself. Now That's Fine, Except When It Falls Down, And You Can't Achieve Your Goals - Through High Unemployment, Through The Fact That You Probably Need Inherited Money To Get Anywhere.

Actual Violence Has No Attraction For Me At All.