Quotes from Sam Mendes

I'm certainly getting a lot more mail... that's basically it.

I deliberately, in a way, went for something that was a huge challenge and was a big period film. I was excited about the canvas on which I could tell the story as much as the story itself.

I feel like the American years were my apprenticeship for doing a Bond movie.

It took me a long time to film the plastic bag, and then I had to get the cut of the scene right. But if you find it as beautiful as the character does, then suddenly it becomes a different movie, and so did he as a character.

The movies that influenced me were movies that told their stories through pictures more than words.

I don't think of it as a competition - which might surprise you, given the way movies are reported constantly.

I don't think good and evil are polarized.

All I know is that I operate by going out to each of them and trying to learn the territory in which they operate. My language to each of them has to suit their brain.

I think movies are a director's medium in the end. Theater is the actor's medium. Theater is fast, and enjoyable, and truly rewarding. I believe in great live performance.

I am not a master-class director. I am not a teacher. I am a coach. I dont have a methodology. Each actor is different. And on the film set, you have to be next to them all.

You're in the lap of the gods. If people go, they go, and if they don't.

I think with Blair Witch and The Sixth Sense, people are much more open to something that is different.

You just never know when movies are going to take off or not. The lucky thing about this was that it didn't cost a lot of money, and therefore there wasn't loads of pressure on me.

When I drive through a field, I want to see green grass sometimes, and I don't want to see black and white.

I like throwing snowballs at small children.

Listen, you make a big movie, you're going into the Coliseum, and people are going to give you the thumbs up or the thumbs down. And that's part of the game. It's part of the fun as well.

The movies that influenced me were movies that told their stories through pictures more than words.

I don't think of it as a competition - which might surprise you, given the way movies are reported constantly.

I wanted to keep exploring... I'm not about to choose a series of movies in which I can use the same bag of tricks and style that I used in the first film.

I want to try and work in different genres with different types of actors, on small movies and big movies.

The perceived wisdom is that people do not go in large numbers to black-and-white movies anymore - which is a great shame, but I'd love to make a black-and-white movie one day.

One of the reasons I loved working with Tom is people feel they know who he is... I think working with an actor who the audience already has a relationship with actually helps you in a film like this.

I think movies are a director's medium in the end. Theater is the actor's medium. Theater is fast, and enjoyable, and truly rewarding. I believe in great live performance.

I've made movies that cost less than one car chase.