I don't disagree with the critics often, and I'm not destroyed by bad criticism anymore. There comes a point when you go beyond it.

There's nothing sadder than when things happen the way you've planned them, because we don't have a lot of imagination, you know.

I want to be surprised by life... I think that's more interesting.

Why do we remember stuff from when we were 5 years old but not important facts that are more recent?

I was brought up by a father and mother who were radically different.

We tend to forget that in those days before the Internet and HBO and Imax and 3-D cinema, opera was the thing. Opera and theatre. If you were a man of the world and you mingled among the happy few, you would be at the opera.

Sylvie Guillem is the best dancer in the world.

You're only as good as your last movie, period. It's a business.

In Grade 2, when we had to do a presentation in front of the class, I'd always do things about Ireland or Italy. I could draw maps; I could name all the capitals: I was completely drawn to other lands. I discovered with time that it's a thirst for other people, for otherness, for something fascinating and mysterious.

I've always had a passion for geography. Even at a very young age.

When we did 'The Dragons' Trilogy,' China was a big, mysterious piece of rock that we never thought would even move. It was impenetrable, impossible to deal with.

Usually, on Broadway or in Hollywood, you come up with a project, and you have to convince the producers that it's safe.

If Darwin's theories are true, then we have within us the physical memory of when we were fish or apes.

Every time we make a new invention, we think we're going to save the world, but eventually, we understand that the real virtues of that new invention have mostly to do with commerce. Then we feel a huge emptiness, and we want to fill it with beauty.

The important thing is not to know where you are going, to be open to accidents. That's what keeps it fun.

People talk about fantastic memories of childhood, but I remember children being cruel to me and wanting to come out of childhood as soon as possible because I knew adults were generally more contained in their cruelty.

I enjoy juggling four or five different projects in the air and finding connections and disconnections between them.

I was interested in theatre, and the only experience that I had in high school was as an actor. But when I got in Conservatoire, my teachers would give me a lot of flack because I wasn't rehearsing my lines; I'd be doing stage management. I was interested in sound. I was interested in architecture. I was interested in every aspect of theatre.

The great advantage of the circus, and the reason it is so popular, is really the ideal combination of art and sport. It's the ideal art form, in a certain way, if you want to be accessible.

I find it very strange when people say that they are trying to solve 'Uncle Vanya' or find a solution for 'Henry V.' Plays aren't puzzles. They are about playing. But so much theatre has become about performing and acting rather than playing, which is a great pity because audiences are captivated by watching people play.

Writing is very much perceived as something distinct from performance. I don't see it like that.

I am interested in suffering and, in particular, the Buddhist idea that in pain, you can find beauty.

Of course I had friends, but it was very limiting because there was always a chance that at every corner, someone would be laughing at me or waiting to beat me up. I had a very lonely childhood because of that.

I don't think there is any kind of magic about what I do. All of the connections are there, somewhere in the subconscious or in the collective unconscious. If I let the elements speak to each other, then these coincidences will happen. And they do happen. They happen all the time.