 Everyone has seen photographs of Mexicans wearing those big sombreros. When you come to Mexico, the astonishing thing is, nobody wears these hats at all. |
| It is essential to do everything possible to attract young people to opera so they can see that it is not some antiquated art form but a repository of the most glorious music and drama that man has created. |
| In my view, the operas of Carlisle Floyd will find a place in the permanent repertoire. |
| In silent movies, they tended to put the camera down, and everybody walked in front of it and acted, and then they all walked off. Cutting was quite infrequent. |
| Perhaps the most difficult thing is shooting scenes set 6,000 feet up in the mountains of Mexico. |
| At HBO, they seem to be well-informed. They make what I think are really quite mature films. |
| With a film, I do my best to understand the author's intentions and try to bring the characters to life. |
| The music of the most popular operas is so highly esteemed, it can stand endless revivals. |
| Tender Mercies is a very low-budget film, but it was a huge budget compared to anything I had done in Australia. My fee for Tender Mercies was something like five times all of my Australian films combined. |
| With Cold Sassy Tree having its first production, I saw no necessity to do anything other than produce it with the correct setting. |
| I didn't get upset because I wasn't nominated, but I was a little surprised. |
| There's a bright spot in every dark cloud. |
| On stage, the audience watches from a fixed viewpoint and the director cannot retake something he doesn't like. It has to work straight through. |
| Film is shot in fragments, and the same moments can be shot again and again until the director is satisfied. |
| The number of opera houses around the world and the high attendance rates show that opera an art form that is more popular than ever. |
| I'd really been interested in opera when I was about 16, and I really like staging them. |
| Directing an opera is similar to directing a play. The singing must not get in the way of the drama. |
| When I was 24 I went to Nigeria and it was such a culture shock, growing up in Australia and suddenly being the only white man in this unit full of black men. |
| When we were trying to get the money for Driving Miss Daisy, everyone kept saying no one could direct it well enough to entertain an audience for 100 minutes essentially watching three people chatting in the kitchen. |
| He's wrong. That's why his films look so terrible. |
