Quotes from Asif Kapadia

I want to make my own films from my own scripts based on stories I want to tell, but they take time to put together.

I studied graphic design originally. I used to like drawing, and I was quite into technical drawing. I was always interested in the visual medium, but I thought I was going to be an architect or something like that, but it's quite a lonely job.

As much as I love creating entertaining visuals, I love toying with the pace of a movie and trying to perfect that. It's imperative to the impact: faster cuts, cuts at the right moments that meld with the tenor of a scene. Creating and maintaining that feeling.

My interest in filmmaking was always very much the visuals and images.

My team and I used the actual footage to create a three-act story of the life of Ayrton Senna. There are no talking heads and no voiceover. Senna narrates his own epic, dramatic, thrilling journey.

We want to make movies for the big screen. We want people to go to the theater and feel like they're watching a movie.

My family didn't film anything. But then you look deeper and realize, maybe there are photographs, there are things. It's also context: You give something a context, and suddenly it becomes really deep or meaningful footage.

I'd always intended to make 'Far North' straight after 'The Warrior.' We had the rights to the short story, the script was in development, and I knew where I wanted to shoot it. It just took a long time getting the script together and raising the finance.

The Tour de France would make a great movie. Drugs, corruption, political chicanery, guys risking their lives - everything you need for a great sports drama.

I'm a sport fan. So, I have always watched everything, and I used to watch racing. Formula One was always on. The genius about it is that it's on at lunchtime on a Sunday.

I wanted to study film at an art school - I loved the idea of being surrounded by designers and artists. We were encouraged to be experimental.

As a kid, I thought movies were boring. My parents would hire VHS recorders for the weekend and watch Bollywood movies. I'd get bored and go out to Stoke Newington common to play football.

My films often have a spiritual dimension which comes from my Muslim background, and I'm happy to tackle that in cinema.

I made several short films with very little dialogue. I'm still not a fan of talking heads. My stories are told with images as much as possible.

I don't normally make documentaries. I'm a drama director. I've made a few short docs, but I don't like talking heads or 'voice of God' narrators.

It's always great to be able to go to a premiere with the actors there.

'Senna' took five years, 'Amy' took three years. You try and say, 'Look, there's no deadline.' That's important. Just saying, 'We've got to make the film. And once the film's ready, it will be out there.'

To be teammates in Formula One actually means you are first rivals, not really mates.

I often make films about subjects I don't really know much about. Maybe it's laziness, but I don't go in there having done a tonne of research; the research happens while I'm making the film.

I made three short films of my own which I wrote, produced, directed... you did everything in those days. My favourite one was something I shot on VHS... a little documentary.

Hopefully with digital projection, a film will always look the way the filmmaker intended.

I worked in TV for a short time and couldn't stand the fact that we'd always be filming someone talking, just giving information.

A big part of my filmmaking is that I can go somewhere new and, visually, be excited by it.

My wife Victoria Harwood was art director on 'Far North,' and she had designed my student film, 'The Sheep Thief.'