[On why his movies don't have sex scenes] "Sex is boring unless you're doing it." "I'm a moviemaker, not a documentarian. I try to hit the truth." "A friend of mine says, 'Art's like a shark. You've got to keep swimming, or else you drown.' Keep bouncing around. People always ask me what's the plan. There is no plan. I go to what fascinates me next." When I first said I wanted to make a film about Rome and cast Russell Crowe, everyone had a good old snigger. I thought, `You wait.' They've done the same with Kingdom of Heaven and Orlando Bloom. I now say, 'Take a look at this.' Balian [Bloom's character in Kingdom of Heaven] is an agnostic, just like me. I am not fighting another holy war here, I am trying to get across the fact that not everyone in the West is a good guy, and not all Muslims are bad. The tragedy is that we still have a lack of understanding between us, and it is 900 years since the crusades. We have never truly resolved our differences. Audiences are less intrigued, honestly, by battle. They're more intrigued by human relations. If you're making a film about the trappings of the period, and you're forgetting that human relationships are the most engaging part of the storytelling process, then you're in trouble. "We're suffering from saturation, overkill. The market place is flooded by demand, and there are too many films, so everything gets watered down. Demand is the boss and everything bends to that will. Bigger and not necessarily better shows seem to be the order of the day. I can't watch most of them." [August 2005] "The digital and theatrical markets are two different marketplaces. I think the digital marketplace - thank God for it! - is like having a book on the shelf: so you can actually go to that book and if it's four hours long, you can put it on pause, you can have a beer - no one's counting."