John Hillcoat

“It's the aspirations that capitalism is promoting as beautiful, positive attributes that are dangerous. All that is in the bedrooms of the poor and in the villages of the Third World, and it's like a cruel carrot that's being waved in front of people's noses. It's a seduction, an unattainable dream.”

“Certain films, when shot digitally, the detail is like CG: you can't feel the sweat. I feel like digital is alienating. There's something superficial to digital compared to the richness of film.”

“It's great to make strong, powerful films, but in terms of people wanting to finance them, it's also very difficult.”

“I like to keep a calm set.”

“Even on a large ensemble where their parts are relatively small - because having ten main characters obviously affects their screen time - the thing that attracts great actors is when there is that challenge to get some reality into something.”

“I think what actors have to do, what performers have to do to emotionally get to that place and have a camera and have your face 20 feet high on a screen, is such an incredible thing.”

“We talk about that a lot: how, when you're under pressure, it brings out the best and the worst in people.”

“Any way you want to slice it, the thing about the apocalypse is, since the beginning of time, it's the projection of mankind's worst fear. The day that, as a race, our number is up.”

“I love the sci-fi movies where it's from the point of view of humans in that situation... When it becomes too clever in its ideas, the cyber-punk, high-tech thing, it becomes more about something else.”

“'The Road' reminds me of Steinbeck's 'The Grapes of Wrath.'”

“I'm actually a humanist, believe it or not, and I believe even when people are corrupted, even when they've gone to the dark side, they are still human beings.”

“The one that I've always wanted - and I have Scott Rudin in my way blocking it - is 'Blood Meridian,' which Cormac McCarthy has offered to adapt into a screenplay.”

“Radiohead showed a real affinity to being bold with visual imagery, so it came as no surprise when Jonny Greenwood did 'There Will Be Blood.'”

“It's not awards per se that bother me; it's entirely to do with the impetus they give for marketing a film.”

“In Australia in the '70s, there was a real embrace of different genres. And then George Miller did 'Mad Max' by the end of the '70s, the beginning of the '80s. And it was really thriving.”

“I love those sorts of stories where you actually see the consequences of what violence does physically to people as well as psychologically.”

“It's such an intense thing to make a film.”

“I'm an Australian. And I'm speaking generally here, but Australians in general aren't patriotic or nationalistic. Our country was built by immigrants. So, by my experience, I've seen the way immigration has transformed nations. They are the key people who quite literally build civilizations, be it culturally or musically.”

“I consider myself a humanist. Even if I do very dark worlds, I try to make those characters real humans as opposed to just cartoons.”

“I kept hearing about this incredible guy called Tom Hardy. I started watching his work, and I was awestruck - he was amazing.”