One develops a strange parallel existence that is not to do with oneself but is defined by some journalists. In my case, I'm supposed to be this - how does it go exactly? - "melancholic soul given to brooding silences". I've long since stopped worrying about how I'm portrayed in the press because ultimately it's not that important. Everyone who knows me knows I do what I do with the greatest integrity. I mean, I've been to screenings of the film where the laughter came at quite surprising - to me - points. But, you know, people laugh for a variety of reasons - with, or at, or out of embarrassment, or nervousness even. It's not always a function of mirth. If it's the case that there are a lot of people who can't or don't see my films, I don't really think that's to do with me, or the nature of my films, or neglect of me. It's to do with the continuing problem of the dissemination of British films on British screens. It's to do with the domination of Hollywood. But, do I feel neglected? No, hand on heart, not at all, I feel lucky. I get to make films without even showing a script. To be honest, the fact that I'm allowed to do what I do in the way that I do it never ceases to amaze me. People say to me, "Oh come on, you could do a great thing with a script." But I've always said no. Everyone will expect the quality and style of the acting to be as good as they are in my other films - and I wouldn't know how to do it. You will find hardly any improvising on camera anywhere in my films. It's very structured, but it's all worked out from elaborate improvisations over a long period, as you know. Literary, word-bound people often say, "Ah well, if that's the case who's the author?" Which is remarkably dumb, isn't it? There was a time when you just couldn't make an independent, indigenous, serious feature film. And those of us who were lucky enough - Ken Loach, Stephen Frears, Alan Clarke and others - mostly found that at the BBC you could do what you wanted. But now I think I've been remarkably lucky to have made 17 full-length films in which nobody has ever interfered, ever. There are moments when you make those decisions, like the moment when I decided I would never, ever direct a conventional script someone else had written - or indeed try to write a conventional script. After that, I felt I could move on. In terms of the way I do it and the things I try to say, there is absolutely no distinction between film and theater. There was a long period in the 1970s when I alternated between plays and films. But the real point is that I am much happier making films. Theater is fine when you do it. But film is my natural habitat. I remain the guy with no script, who is very unforthcoming about what the film will be about and who won't discuss casting, which is the biggest sin of all. I will not talk about a film, even if there is a massive budget, if there are strings attached about casting. "Given the choice of Hollywood or poking steel pins in my eyes, I'd prefer steel pins." "I like my films. I can't understand directors who don't watch their films after they've made them. If you don't like them, how the fuck can you expect anyone else to?" "A Jew is someone who grows up in that environment. You can say that you're working class, you can say that you're northern or southern. These are non-negotiable facts. While I walked away from a Jewish existence, lots of things carried on in my life: gastronomic obsession, massive amounts of reading Isaac Bashevis Singer and Saul Bellow. So one doesn't stop being Jewish." "Given the events of even the 19th century, Zionism was inevitable. Given the events of the 20th century, Israel was inevitable." "In many ways, my parents in an unconscious way wanted to be as English as possible. They went to the theater, to Stratford, to the Halle. My father only ever voted Labour. They were very bourgeois, very neurotic and very insular. When I went to Israel in 1960 we were on a kibbutz and we insisted on having a discussion about whether you could be an artist on a kibbutz. Of course, what we were dealing with was our own, unformed struggle about the whole thing, where our cultural roots were. The truth was, we were European and English artists."