I'm in the communications business.

We need to be much more robust consumers.

I like the accidental nature of being in the real world.

I love text, I love email, I love Skype; I think it's amazing.

Cinema is arguably the 20th century's most influential art form.

If we don't record our own history on the Net, it will disappear.

Make films whenever and however you can - don't take no for an answer.

During my 'difficult teens,' I read about worlds that were mysterious.

Our politicians don't say anything anymore: they just refute and assert.

We are increasingly offered a diet in which sensation, not story, is king.

I love being in real life, and in particular, I like being with young people.

I've always been interested in exploring difficult subjects for the mainstream.

Making a big commercial movie is hard when you think about how many of them flop.

I think I've been very, very lucky in my life, and I do believe in public service.

When I was 13, I had a weekend job at the Photographers Gallery Bookshop in London.

I think it is a great gift to make people laugh, and it shouldn't be underestimated.

I've discovered my Jewishness late in life. And I've really enjoyed exploring that world.

We are increasingly offered a diet [by Hollywood] in which sensation, not story, is king.

Vittorio De Sica famously made 'Bicycle Thieves'; that's the film of his everybody knows.

The irony is palpable - technical access has never been greater, cultural access never weaker.

When politicians say, 'Oh, parents should supervise their kids' Internet use,' it drives me crazy.

My children know not to shout before Mummy has warmed herself into something human with her coffee.

I think the documentary is something that people are hungry for, that it embodies careful thought, nuance.

Unfortunately, teatime in London is when people in Los Angeles arrive in their offices and pick up the phone.

What is the point of teaching how to analyse a poem or a piece of Shakespeare but not to analyse the Internet?

The Greenham women left home for peace: 'Not in our name!' they cried. And in doing so, they spoke for millions.

I don't see such a huge difference between online and 'in real life'. I think it has now become one and the same.

The previous generation paved the way for my generation to gallop unheeded into jobs previously reserved for men.

The thing about documentary is that you don't really choose your subjects: they come and grab you out of your bed.

Human beings have always told their histories and truths through parable and fable. We are inveterate storytellers.

The thing that upsets me is the ubiquitous use of reward technology, which uses our evolutionary biology against us.

If you look where kids are spending time on the Net, they may have all the information in the world, but they're not accessing it.

This is a culture filled with perfect images of women and perfect images of movie actresses, and most people can't live up to them.

Our children, manipulated to become exemplary consumers, increasingly admit they do not feel 'in control' of their own Internet use.

There is nothing wrong with Facebook in itself, except that it is not a very good tool to express the quality of your relationships.

People have a right to have their lives witnessed; if we coexist with the systems that abuse people, then we have a duty to understand.

I've liked being Jewish in America - there's a secular version of Jewishness there that's more about bagels and jokes than going to synagogues.

I hope that every film I make has something to offer in the area of making people feel either vindicated or different in terms of who they are.

I come from the school who thought the Internet could be the great democratising force, that getting rid of the gatekeepers was a positive move.

The film that changed my life is a 1951 film by Vittorio De Sica, 'Miracle in Milan.' It's a remarkable comment on slums, poverty and aspiration.

If Twitter is worth seven billion next month, I'm happy for them to be worth six billion and spend a billion making it safer for people, for example.

Each January, nearly half a million people visit the small town of Saundatti for ajatre or festival, to be blessed by Yellamma, the Hindu goddess of fertility.

The thing I have come to find astonishing is that people from all political sides routinely say that the Internet has to be the model of free speech and freedom.

Arguably, it was the introduction of international non-proliferation treaties in the late '80s that finally led to the missiles being removed from Greenham Common.

We need to work out who is paying for film; in the U.K., it is increasingly difficult to get production funds - and pre-sales demand more and more shot/cut material.

I am still cautiously hopeful about the potential of the Internet. But it seems that the greatest revolution in communication has been hijacked by commercial values.

There's something about actors - not stars, but actors - if they have the character, and someone is pushing and shoving them to be the best they can be, they enjoy that.

We have allowed a situation to develop in which it is legal for a multibillion dollar industry to own, wholly and in perpetuity, the intimate and personal details of children.

Whether in cave paintings or the latest uses of the Internet, human beings have always told their histories and truths through parable and fable. We are inveterate storytellers.

In the U.S., it would be so much better if the studios made many more smaller films for niche markets rather than a few tent pole films that swamp cinemas and Hoover up all the funding.

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