Hollywood has its own way of telling stories. I was just telling stories that I was familiar with. And it's what I want to do in the future: I want to take my audio cinema and put it on the screen.

I tend to play characters that I can infuse with certain kinds of humour. Even the baddest guy can be funny in his own particular way. I want the audience to engage with the character on some deeper level so that they leave the cinema still thinking about him.

When I first envisioned 'Funny Games' in the mid-1990s it was my intention to have an American audience watch the movie. It is a reaction to a certain American cinema its violence its naivety the way American cinema toys with human beings. In many American films violence is made consumable.

Feudal societies don't create great cinema we have great theatre. The egalitarian societies create great cinema. The Americans the French. Because equality is sort of what the cinema deals with. It deals with stories which don't fall into 'Everybody in their place and who's who ' and all that. But the theatre's full of that.

I think cinema is closer to allegories than to reality. It's closer to our dreams.

The appeal of cinema lies in the fear of death.

I prefer ordinary girls - you know college students waitresses that sort of thing. Most of the girls I go out with are just good friends. Just because I go out to the cinema with a girl it doesn't mean we are dating.

It's up to the courage of the filmmakers to make art in cinema not just business. John was rejected by studios he borrowed money and did movies with his own money. You're either courageous or not. You have to find a way.

It's cool for me because I'm a director but I'm also a teacher. I'm a lover of cinema and I love working with people who are hungry and have the energy to really do better work.

Any film I do is not going to change the way black women have been portrayed or black people have been portrayed in cinema since the days of D.W. Griffith.