Anton Corbijn

“I am a village boy, and Amsterdam for me was always the big town.”

“I have such a love of good music that I find even melancholic music uplifting. Maybe I'm a rare breed.”

“I happen to take photographs, and they happen to be used for a lot of things, but they're not really made to order. They're paid for, but they're not made for order. I've never really done real commercial work.”

“'Control' had to do with my own life a lot, and that's why that seemed to be a film I could be the director of, because I had an emotional attachment to the whole story. And because of that experience, I feel that I can try other films. I didn't set out to become a director.”

“If you make something with love and, you know, passion and you tell a real story, I think it will always find an audience somehow, you know.”

“Film was something that I didn't see as a step up from music videos, though obviously, music videos, the fact that you work with a crew and a film camera, are the closest to film I've ever been. That is the only schooling I've ever had.”

“I do have an ego, but I acknowledge the help I get.”

“I've always thought photography was a bit of an adventure, so to come home with the film, develop it, then look at the results has more of a sense of excitement.”

“My first pictures are from 1972, and my first proper camera dates back to 1973. During the first year I used my father's camera. It had a flash on it, which I don't like, but I didn't know anything about photography back then, so it was just what I did.”

“It's so easy for people to stick a label on you, and then that taints everything you touch.”

“If you're an artist, it's OK to put your money into your art. The advantage, in hindsight, is that you become the film, and the film becomes you; you breathe it.”

“I never really enjoyed getting a portfolio together then sending it out; whereas, putting up the website is quite an enjoyable experience. The net's just a much faster and more modern way to distribute things, and you have to embrace it.”

“My life changed incredibly when I moved from Holland to England.”

“With a film, you try to keep your vision in it. I think with 'The American' and 'Control' I managed to do that.”

“I'm not famous; I am simply very well-known to certain people. Famous is something different.”

“My photography changed from being more documentary-like to arranging things more, and that came into being partly because I started doing music videos, and I incorporated some things from the music videos into my photography again, by arranging things more.”

“Working with actors is something I've never done before. I find it tremendous. It's hard work.”

“Once you make decisions, you can't go back, but in photography, that process can continue. With film, you have to eliminate all the possibilities and make the one possibility work the best for you, so you have to become very creative with the direction you've chosen.”

“For me N.M.E. was a very big thing. When I first came to the United Kingdom I started taking pictures for them and I became their main photographer for five years, and that's really been the basis of everything I've been doing since.”

“The really simple approach to photography is a great balance to making the films.”