Baz Luhrmann

In terms of the mechanics of story, myth is an intriguing one because we didn't make myth up; myth is an imprinture of the human condition.

One of my great all-time loves in cinema, and I've seen it three times, is Bondarchuk's 'War and Peace.' Not a lot of people may have seen that film. It was made during the Soviet era.

At a very young age I was allowed to go into the cinema and watch adult films.

If you wanted to show a mirror to people that says, 'You've been drunk on money,' they're not going to want to see it. But if you reflected that mirror on another time they'd be willing to. People will need an explanation of where we are and where we've been, and 'The Great Gatsby' can provide that explanation.

Fitzgerald coined the phrase the 'Jazz Age,' and now we're living in the Hip-Hop Age.

Opera was the cinema of its time, so to bring back that popular appeal, you just need to unleash its visceral immediacy and excitement. Most productions don't manage that - but when an opera does do it, you never forget it.

There's a whole system in Hollywood where the director never speaks to the studio, but I like to engage them in a discussion. I listen.

I've tried to make 'Strictly Ballroom' impossible to date. It does feel a bit '80s but I consciously made sure there was no technology in the movie that could date it.

I mean, '8½' to me is such a great dissertation on the whole, you know, act of filmmaking and creativity."

I do find walking is fundamental to my creative process.

I mean the future has become old fashioned.