LENNY ABRAHAMSON

Hollywood is probably the most active centre of film-making in the world, but it's also a very difficult place in which to find your voice... It was also a far more civilised industry in Ireland.

A big part of filmmaking is gathering a group of people you can work with.

After 'Adam and Paul,' I had offers from American agents, but I think I would have been swallowed up.

Although I was really interested in physics, I think I wanted to do it because I thought it was really hard. I did theoretical physics.

As a small kid, I had this huge desire to be thought of as really clever.

As far as the international industry is concerned, I don't think people care at all where you are from - if the work interests them.

As soon as you make some films that people like, you'll be sent material, and that can come from anywhere.

Cinema at its best can express something of the pure irreducible fact of things.

Delusion is not good; better to be realistic and then surprise yourself if you're lucky.

Films should have the capacity to bring you into another world.

For me, I always think of the image of sweeping out my footprints as I walk through a scene.

Generally speaking, the misfit's story is easier to tell.

Good filmmakers make bad films; it happens.

I am an unusual Irishman. I'm probably Ireland's third most famous Jewish son.

I came from a classic, literate, intellectual Jewish family.

I don't think of myself as doing good works. It's not, 'Oh, I must give these poor people a voice.'

I remember a Q&A I did in Wales where there were five people in the auditorium.

I think people like to have their categories clear. They want to know if it's fiction or fact, biopic or not.

I wanted to make films that were culturally relevant in my own country, that challenged people, and that people talked about.

I'm a big fan of American vaudeville and Hollywood silent film-era slapstick and the music halls full of ridiculous, eccentric characters.

I'm a bit of a late developer, generally. But the good thing about being a filmmaker is you still count as young all the way through your 40s.

I'm a bit of a pessimist, oh yeah, and I always think the film I'm about to make is going to be a disaster.

I'm interested in discontinuities and interruptions, people having to rewrite the narrative of their lives because of sudden changes.

I'm Irish; I grew up in Ireland, and it's impossible to separate my background from who I am as a filmmaker.

I'm not an academic type in term of personality. I had my share of madness as a teenager.