"A film is different than a script. The text of the script is what it is." — John Curran

I lived in New York City, and when I was about 24 in the 1980s, I decided to get out of here. I wanted to go live in Australia for a year or something, and it ended up being 18 years.

I cited 'Catch-22' as a landmark film and one of my favourites.

In my experience, not just in shooting films but in the commercials I've done, initially, it's very exciting for the community, and its a real novelty. Very quickly, though, they realize there's a buck to be had, and it becomes annoying, and they lose their patience pretty quick.

I'm not the kind of director who imposes his processes on everybody else.

'Tracks' is based on the book by Robyn Davidson who, in the mid-Seventies, decided to leave the city, go to the outback, learn to train camels and walk across the Australian desert to the ocean: a journey that is about two thousand miles and will take about six or seven months.

There's something about Alan Arkin. Even when he's doing nothing, he makes me laugh. I've always had that reaction to him: he's got a weary world-view that makes him perfectly cast.

If you have a film that's talking about God, you would think that it would appeal to people that consider themselves religious, whatever denomination they're attached to.

The spirit around leaving New York, for me, was that I just felt I needed to do something really outside of my comfort zone. And I really couldn't tell you at the time why I needed to do it. It wasn't like I was running from something dark; it was a desire to shake things up.

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A film is different than a script. The text of the script is what it is.