What you want can be yours. But you must first know what it is you want.
To make movies you just have to want it enough. You have to have the passion for telling stories. You have to get by the love-of-movies aspect. You can't just be a movie fan.
The strongest human emotion is fear. It's the essence of any good thriller that, for a little while, you believe in the boogeyman.
Fears are all psychological. Being afraid of death, loss of a loved one and disfigurement are all powered by your mind, and that's very powerful stuff.
We all question our sanity. Everyone has had an experience of loss of control of something.
Horror is always the same. It changes with the culture and changes with technology. The stories are always the same. There are just two basic stories in horror, two simple ones -- evil is outside and evil is in here [points to his heart].
Horror stories have always worked on film. It's where they work. That's where vampires and ghosts and UFOs are real. They're not particularly real in life, but they're real on the screen. It's the communal aspect of movie-watching.
Inviting people to inquiry is much more powerful to me than describing my experience. When people hear me tell the story, they often say, "Oh my goodness, I get it. I get it!" But it's not enough.
Like most people, Im fascinated by characters who are completely flawed personalities, riven by anguish and doubt, and are psychologically suspect.
If you love something, give it away.
I must have read every issue of 'Punch' published in the 20th century, and I think in the process I picked up the true voice of English humour - that amiable, fairly liberal, laconic voice which you find in something like 'Three Men in a Boat. '