[on Hero (1992)] I didn't know how you filmed a plane crash. And it's not that Dustin [Hoffman] was difficult, but having big stars skews the movie; you have to concentrate on this enormous investment. I'm sure I could handle it now, but at the time it knocked me down like a train. In My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) and Dangerous Liaisons (1988) you could see where the money was going but with Hero we had $42m to deal with, and it was flying all over the place.

I should never have done Mary Reilly (1996). I knew that before I started. It was full of great design and photography, but it should have been a little BBC film.

Film schools didn't exist when I was growing up. I learned by working with clever people. Good writers and cinematographers. And before them, [directors] Karel [Reisz] and Lindsay [Anderson], who gave me a kind of foundation course.

The only way you can learn about making films is by making them, by putting your stamp on the thing.

The British Film Institute is under-funded. It needs money. It's as simple as that. It's our lives, our culture. The government does not prioritize this highly enough.

I like making films about different cultures. I'm interested in things that I've never encountered before. I try to put myself in the audience's position.

Well, while you're shooting, you're bringing a story to life. It always goes in slightly unexpected ways. You're trying to make sure everybody's in the same film. John Gielgud always said, 'If you're lucky, you know what film you're in.' You want everyone comfortable with each other, agreeing on circumstances. You're asking actors, indeed, everybody on set, to be intimate, to be a family in a world that's the product of their mutual imagination. You're the patriarch, holding the whole thing together, depending on everyone being collaborative. In editing, you discover what you've got, what you've missed, what you should have done, things you hadn't thought of, holes that need filling. That's why Woody Allen re-shoots. It's done in light of what he's learned, because you make films in the dark, learning as you go. I'm always so curious to see where it's leading. To find out, you must let go, must relinquish control and be open. When I started opening up about 25 years ago, my films got better.

I never expected to become a director. It never occurred to me to come to America, to Hollywood. It's all been a wonderful accident. I'm still amazed every time I finish a film. I'm the opposite of Steven (Spielberg) who's obsessed about making films since he was a child. It's all come as a surprise; I'm finding my way through the dark.

I can't write, I don't think I'm even particularly good at telling a writer what's good or what's missing. So, actually having someone who can do that is a godsend.

Isn't that what Joan Collins' success is based on? People love bitches. The more dreadful they are, the more awful things they say, the more heavenly they are.

I like a lot of takes. I just go on until the actors get it right.

There's one thing now that I experience every day when I'm making a film. I get up and think to myself, am I going to be able to do it today? I figure as long as I have that fear, I'll be alright.

A friend asked me why I thought I'd been able to direct films for 30 years and I really didn't have an answer. It is a very difficult industry and grinds up talent unmercifully.