I hear filmmakers saying, ‘I wanted to make to make a film about this issue, or this theme,’ but I never start like that.

I’ve not used a score in any of my films so far.

I am obsessed with why people turn out the way they are.

I just like doing things from my own head.

I never write with an actor in mind – never.

Whenever I get fed up with life I love to go wandering in nature.

Obviously when you cast someone who hasn’t acted before it can be a massive opportunity for them.

Dramatically, I like darkness, I like conflict – but I don’t see the world as defined by them.

I normally go with the flow.

I try and be truthful.

As long as you keep your budgets small, there’s a way of making films.

Sometimes when you’re going fast, your instincts can be very useful.

Every time I start a film I feel like I’m starting the first time, ever.

Once I’ve finished a film I just want to get on and make another one.

I want to try and be instinctive as a writer and director.

I always think that if you look at anyone in detail, you will have empathy for them because you recognize them as a human being, no matter what they’ve done.

Usually, I make such small-budget films that I can’t afford to buy weather.

For me, making films is about trying to work something out by myself in quite a lonely way. I find the whole thing very lonely really.

I definitely feel sorry more people don’t get to see my films. They aren’t inaccessible, and if people got the chance to see them, I know they’d like them.

I was 18 when I got my first TV job.

I’m sure most of us remember being a kid and you have all of this endless time where two weeks before Christmas feels like ten years. I used to go to bed to try and...

We’re all quite vulnerable human beings really.

I always get quite close to my script because I work quite hard on them.

My films don’t give you an easy ride. I can see that. The sense I get is that people have quite a physical experience with them. They feel afterwards that they’ve really been through something.

I was never that comfortable in front of the camera, it always terrified me.

I grew up in a working-class family, so I guess you could say I write from what I know.

You learn on every film so much.

I can’t remember why or how I started writing, but I think it was always a way of making sense of the world.

With a lot of films, people are sitting on the outside looking in, but I want the audience to get a bit more intimately involved with what’s going on, so that they maybe can experience...

I wonder whether my bleak-o-meter is set differently from other people’s.

People ask, ‘Are your things autobiographical?,’ and I think, no, they’re not autobiographical directly, but of course my life has informed my work.

A lot of people have something to say about ‘Wuthering Heights,’ but nobody quite nails it.

I don’t read reviews.

Interestingly, I never thought I’d do an adaptation. I’ve also been quite against them. I think trying to translate one medium to another is wrong. I never really felt that books fitted into film. Generally...

I’m fascinated with what an audience will take away from an image.

I love insects. They are amazing.

Films are all about decisions, and that’s what I love.

I don’t think estates are grim places.

I’m lucky.

I was a freestyle dancer; I wasn’t trained.

I deliberately never read about films before I see them.

I don’t want to think too much about me.

I’m much happier behind the camera.

I work best when there is adversity: I seem to get calmer the more the fur is flying.

I do believe some people can naturally act and don’t know it.

I find it kind of weird that directors want to put themselves in their films.

I’ve got no education.

I don’t think you can question your instinct; you should always trust it.

I don’t feel very revengeful in life at all.