MICHAEL WINTERBOTTOM

When people approach me about my films it is usually to tell me how much they hate them.

A lot of the aspects of the world of the film are amalgams of things that already exist.

If you do a story about a British journalist rescuing a child from Sarajevo, then Sarajevo just becomes an exotic location, and the story's about this British journalist.

We always had the idea that there might be two slightly different versions of the same thing.

I prefer to watch people.

There's still a 1950s view of cinema, that there's one audience and they all want to see the same thing.

The great thing about not having a script is there's nothing you have to shoot that day. When you start filming, you can shoot anything you want. There's no pressure to shoot anything. Whatever interests you that day is what you're shooting. That's a big liberation that makes it more enjoyable and more relaxed. I think if you have that kind of framework it can make it a much more satisfying thing to work on and to watch as well.

I still enjoy watching films more than making them.

I think it would be impossible if you had a name like mine not to get a little flack for it.

From my experience working with comedians, there is that competitive aspect. With actors, for instance, they don't want to look competitive even if they are, whereas comedians, I think, are openly happy to play on the idea that they all compete with each other to get the laughs. There's something about comedy, I think, that encourages that. There's this kind of schoolboy sense of wanting to top the other person that we play off of to show them competing for who's smarter or cleverer.

When you start being enthusiastic about whatever it is you like, that is the golden age for you.

When people approach me about my films it is usually to tell me how much they hate them.

I prefer to watch people.

I still enjoy watching films more than making them.

I think it would be impossible if you had a name like mine not to get a little flack for it.

I'm a fan of music from all over the world.

There's still a 1950s view of cinema, that there's one audience and they all want to see the same thing.

If you do a story about a British journalist rescuing a child from Sarajevo, then Sarajevo just becomes an exotic location, and the story's about this British journalist.

The great thing about not having a script is there's nothing you have to shoot that day. When you start filming, you can shoot anything you want. There's no pressure to shoot anything. Whatever interests you that day is what you're shooting. That's a big liberation that makes it more enjoyable and more relaxed. I think if you have that kind of framework it can make it a much more satisfying thing to work on and to watch as well.

I don't particularly like the idea that there's an arc to the story and that therefore in this scene you have to convey this bit of information or emotion. I like more the feeling that, of course, there is a shape to the story, but that each scene should feel right, should be true at that moment, and that gradually you accumulate these moments of truth until you get enough of them together that it becomes a story that's interesting.

From my experience working with comedians, there is that competitive aspect. With actors, for instance, they don't want to look competitive even if they are, whereas comedians, I think, are openly happy to play on the idea that they all compete with each other to get the laughs. There's something about comedy, I think, that encourages that. There's this kind of schoolboy sense of wanting to top the other person that we play off of to show them competing for who's smarter or cleverer.

When you're working with a script and you have three pages for that day, you have to shoot that. It can become sort of like a prison, because by the time you've shot what you need to shoot, you don't really have time to think or shoot anything else.

We always had the idea that there might be two slightly different versions of the same thing.

A lot of the aspects of the world of the film are amalgams of things that already exist.

There's a lot of ridiculous hypocrisy about sex in films today. And that's one of the reasons why I made 9 Songs, to say, "Why can't you put sex in a film?"

I prefer to take actors and put them in real settings and real locations and real situations rather than create artificial locations that serve the characters. It's just much easier when you are walking down the street with your actors to do that in a real street that's still open with people on it, rather than to close it off and bring in extras.

You can almost take the book and use it as a script.

If you make a film set in London or in Pakistan or wherever, the thing that interests me is the relationships between individuals - individuals and society, individuals and their family, their girlfriend or boyfriend, it's all the same idea.