-
A life lived in fear is a life half lived.
-
I feel funny about owning art. I don't really want to say: 'Wow, come and see my Monet - it's in a dark room at the bottom of my cellar.'
-
The ugly duckling is a misunderstood universal myth. It's not about turning into a blonde Barbie doll or becoming what you dream of being; it's about self-revelation, becoming who you are.
-
When I was growing up you would see big American films that really mythologised their landscape, that really showed the vastness and the drama of their country.
-
I feel like a member of any group comprised of outsiders.
-
I do find walking is fundamental to my creative process.
-
One of the great things about Sydney is that it has a great acceptance of everyone and everything. It's an incredibly tolerant city, a city with a huge multicultural basis.
-
I grew up around jazz. I love jazz.
-
I always have a point of view. It may not be right, but it's my own.
-
Opera was the cinema of its time, so to bring back that popular appeal, you just need to unleash its visceral immediacy and excitement. Most productions don't manage that - but when an opera does do it, you never forget it.
-
Fitzgerald was a modernist.
-
Everything I make starts very personally.
-
You really think that on my films people tell me what to do? I don't think so. On my films I decide.
-
My father made sure that I had lots of levels of education - from ballroom-dancing to painting, commando training, theatre and magic.
-
If you wanted to show a mirror to people that says, 'You've been drunk on money,' they're not going to want to see it. But if you reflected that mirror on another time they'd be willing to. People will need an explanation of where we are and where we've been, and 'The Great Gatsby' can provide that explanation.
-
I am always worried when someone says, 'This is perfect.'
-
Australia, to the rest of the world, is just far away, and Australia in the Thirties was the faraway of the faraway.
-
In the '60s not everybody was wearing flowers in their hair and flowing caftans.
-
In terms of the mechanics of story, myth is an intriguing one because we didn't make myth up; myth is an imprinture of the human condition.
-
I wouldn't take a directing job if I didn't think it was enriching life.
-
I understand that anything actors are doing, good or bad, is motivated by fear.
-
Sydney is rather like an arrogant lover. When it rains it can deny you its love and you can find it hard to relate to. It's not a place that's built to be rainy or cold. But when the sun comes out, it bats its eyelids, it's glamorous, beautiful, attractive, smart, and it's very hard to get away from its magnetic pull.
-
I mean the future has become old fashioned.
-
The party is a true art form in Sydney and people practise it a great deal. You can really get quite lost in it.