I used to have a theory that there was something sublime about all women and every film – whether good or bad, ugly or beautiful, intelligent or stupid – there’s a gesture, a fleeting moment, some element of mystery or beauty, making it all almost worthwhile. All my dreams are films and all my women are dreams.

Every film is worth watching. A film is like a lifetime. Some parts boring. Unfocused. But brief flashes of magic. Making it all. Almost worthwhile. Films are better than people. Films are more satisfying; they’re shorter. They have a beginning, middle and end. We just have a beginning and an end. The middle isn’t worth watching, or maybe the beginning and the end aren’t either.

...In Sydney, Australia, there was a cinema with sofas for seats which served vegetarian Indian food. In New Orleans there was a cinema with sofas, beds and cushions and, on Canal Street, another cinema called Joy which just showed ‘black’ films. From Cairo to Bali the film posters were hand painted, garish and lurid. Apocalypse Now was filmed in the Philippines. Lawrence of Arabia was filmed in Morocco. Hollywood makes most of its money from selling its films to South America.

– 1999