So the news that divorced fathers are to be denied a legal right to a relationship with their children in the long overdue review of family law published this week fills me with horror and despair.

Boast is always a cry of despair except in the young it is a cry of hope.

I don't feel despair because I am able to make the films I want to make and that gives me hope.

I think it's realistic to have hope. One can be a perverse idealist and say the easiest thing: 'I despair. The world's no good.' That's a perverse idealist. It's practical to hope because the hope is for us to survive as a human species. That's very realistic.

It has never been and never will be easy work! But the road that is built in hope is more pleasant to the traveler than the road built in despair even though they both lead to the same destination.

To my utter despair I have discovered and discover every day anew that there is in the masses no revolutionary idea or hope or passion.

With optimism you look upon the sunny side of things. People say 'Studs you're an optimist.' I never said I was an optimist. I have hope because what's the alternative to hope? Despair? If you have despair you might as well put your head in the oven.

I've convinced myself - I hope I'm right - that children despair of you if you don't tell them the truth.

Do parents sit down and tell their kids everything? I don't know. I don't know. I've convinced myself - I hope I'm right - that children despair of you if you don't tell them the truth.

I do believe that most men live lives of quiet desperation. For despair optimism is the only practical solution. Hope is practical. Because eliminate that and it's pretty scary. Hope at least gives you the option of living.