Quotes from Sam Taylor-Johnson

I think I was lucky I got into art college. That's what saved me.

I feel like I became an artist by default. I went to art college, but my interest was always more towards film than painting or sculpture.

A friend got me a job on the door of the Camden Palace nightclub, which quickly progressed to running the place.

I keep seeing in the papers that I am good friends with Samantha Cameron. I've never met her in my life.

I've turned into one of those people who go jogging in parks that I used to hate.

I seize all opportunities with two hands. Everything that's happened to me has taught me to live in the moment as much as possible.

I'm fascinated by male vulnerability.

My stepfather was quite into opera, but he'd play it when he was in a bad mood, so you'd hear this boom through the floor, Wagner, and you'd feel nervous.

I'm very blessed with the perfect husband.

You have to be brave when you've got a kid.

I'm not a shouter, and I'm not a bully.

The pictures I make come from every blink of my lashes.

I have a massive phobia for schedules and calendars. I need people to tell me where I need to be. I can't bear to see it in black and white. I think it's a fear of being pinned down.

When Scorsese or Coppola cast celebrities in their work, it goes without question.

I'm twitchy. I think I've got ADD. I find it hard to sit down. I need to be constantly challenged; otherwise, I get very... well, I guess 'bored' is the word.

When you have an author and an auteur, it's a difficult and challenging relationship.

I suppose I didn't cry in all the cancer crap stuff because I felt I couldn't lose the battle, and part of the battle was holding myself together.

I believe that life is short, and there is too much time wasted bearing grudges, and I like to move on.

I've been through plenty in my life where I've really had to focus on the day ahead... because, as I know, the future is, you know, whatever the future is... Once you've stared mortality that hard in the face, you really seize the day.

Money scares me, and it always has done. I've got a childish concept of money, and I like to keep it that way in the sense that I don't like to think about it.

I'm motivated every second by my work; it doesn't switch off. The pictures I make come from every blink of my lashes.

Seriously, I wanted to be an artist because I saw that it meant endless possibilities. I came from a badly managed family background, so art was a way of reinventing myself.

I felt giving birth was the most creative act of all my creative acts - literally creation!

A woman going out with a younger man feels like the last taboo.