Stephen Daldry

“I would love to do something for TV... I wanna do 'Kavalier & Clay' on HBO as an eight-parter. It'll be so much better as a series, honestly.”

“I am, in fact, Superman. Every morning I wake up and go into a telephone booth and change my costume, and then go to work.”

“Ring up your parents and ring up your kids and tell them that you love them.”

“I love changing. I hate it when people try to box me in to a relationship or in a work context. Any situation where I feel boxed in freaks me out. And I feel the need to reinvent myself or I'll get bored.”

“They're a redefinition of boredom... the most important thing you need to know about an awards show is where is the nearest smoking opportunity.”

“הוא הפגין אהדה לגיבורה שלו, כרטיסנית ברכבת, שהייתה בעברה שומרת במחנה ריכוז. הבמאי הותקף על ידי מבקרים על כך שהציג בצורה לא הוגנת ומניפולטיבית את פשעי המלחמה הנאציים." ~ אמיר קמינר, על בימוי הסרט "נער קריאה”

“העיבוד הבלתי־אפשרי של סטיבן דלדרי לספר, שנדמה שאין טקסט פחות הולם ממנו לסרט, מעמיד אותו כאחד הבמאים האמיצים של תקופתנו." ~ שחר מגן, על בימוי הסרט "השעות”

“לכל אחד יש את סיפור ה־11 בספטמבר שלו, ושלי לא יותר מיוחד משל אנשים אחרים. הייתי בדיוק בלונדון, שם סיימתי את העבודה על סרטי 'השעות'. כשנודע לי על הפיגועים, מיהרתי לטלפון להשיג אנשים, לראות אם הם בחיים.”

“יש משהו אוטומטי אצל הקהל האמריקאי שאם מישהו הוא גרמני, ונחמד אז הוא חייב להיות יהודי. ואם רואים מישהו כזה שסבל בעברו, אז זה בטח קשור לשואה.”

“At school, I decided I wanted to be a director and then I went out and spent the rest of my adult life trying to be a director. It was really clear to me. So in that sense I was very lucky.”

“The great fun of doing new plays is that people have no idea what's going to happen next. That goes quite soon, as people start talking about it, and the only way you can keep hold of that is genuinely to keep changing it.”

“I never want to make a film. I don't wake up in the morning going, 'Ooh, I'd really love to be on set making a film today'. I'm aware that other contemporary film directors perceive film-making as what they do, as what they have to do. But I would hope that I am more catholic in my tastes.”

“I'm not really a director for hire. You read these scripts and go, 'This is a really great script, but Paul Greengrass would make this so much better than me.' I usually say, 'I know who would be good for this. It's not me.'”

“I think it's absolutely fascinating that in Berlin the parliament can discuss actively the role of their soldiers in Afghanistan because is it still possible, literally, for a German soldier to take up arms.”

“I love test screenings. Some directors don't, I know. But I love it. I think it's because I come from the theatre and in the theatre, previews are where you really have to listen to the audience and really feel how they're responding. I found our test screenings incredibly useful.”

“I always say, 'I really need to take a break.' It's three days in and I'm getting pretty bored.”

“Every now and then I have to teach directing. The thing about the theatre is that the most important thing you can do as a director is to make sure that everybody is in the same world - you have to create the world and make sure everyone buys into it.”

“England is strictly class-based. What's surprising is how many films are still made with a load of people in silly frocks running around gardens and talking in middle-class accents.”

“Is it appropriate still for a German to have a gun? I only use that as an example of a country that's still deeply involved and engaged in the conversations about how to come to terms with the past. Certainly for that country, it's not forgotten.”

“When I got married, my mother was very surprised. She said: 'What on earth is going on? I thought you were gay?'”