Mike Leigh

The main problem is that the Hollywood system has already made the film before the director shoots a single frame.

— Mike Leigh

The delineation between the actor and his part is a practical matter. When the camera runs, you want the actor to be…

— Mike Leigh

Films are made all over the world all the time and only a thin slice of that product is Hollywood.

— Mike Leigh

I think it's important that nobody forgets that although Hollywood commercially dominates the world cinema, in fact what comes out of the…

— Mike Leigh

Life is about luck and it's about circumstances and socioeconomic conditions and all the rest of it, but you know, you can…

— Mike Leigh

I hope I make films where you walk away . . . with work to do, arguments to have, things to worry…

— Mike Leigh

It's an unhealthy habit to say that life is what you make of it, and if you want to be happy, then…

— Mike Leigh

You will find hardly any improvising on camera anywhere in my films. It's very structured, but it's all worked out from elaborate…

— Mike Leigh

I take no notice of the trends. It has never concerned me at all. My job is to deal with what I…

— Mike Leigh

A lot of the reasons that I'm resistant to making films in the U.S. have nothing to do with not doing a…

— Mike Leigh

But films should be voyeuristic. What else is a film if you're not snooping into somebody else's lives?

— Mike Leigh

I try and create for the audience something that relates to real-life experience. When you're meeting somebody for the first time, all…

— Mike Leigh

People have been very resistant to giving me more than the standard amount of money. So I keep making films on a…

— Mike Leigh

But actually I make films that I think are extremely sophisticated and cinematic.

— Mike Leigh

My work requires acting at its most committed - it demands actors of enormous resilience, but also intelligence and wit. It doesn't…

— Mike Leigh

What I do is to collaborate with each actor and work one-on-one to create a character. And that is a matter of…

— Mike Leigh

I try and create for the audience something that relates to real-life experience.

— Mike Leigh

There are plenty of bad actors and there are plenty of bad directors. There are actors who will always be bad and…

— Mike Leigh

Resolve was never stronger than in the morning, after the night, when it was never weaker

— Mike Leigh

My job apart from anything else is to build an ensemble composed of actors who all come from a secure place so…

— Mike Leigh

I really think people are greatly stimulated and enriched by experiencing in film just as we can from novels and other art,…

— Mike Leigh

One of the reasons the whole Hollywood way of making films wouldn't work for me is because the way I operate would…

— Mike Leigh

There have always been and there always will be the peripheral sideline activities which are a form of entertainment, which is to…

— Mike Leigh

When it comes to thinking about how a character talks, there are literary and language considerations. For actors to be able to…

— Mike Leigh

In the first place, I'm pretty thorough about whom I choose. I instinctively look for the kind of actor who is going…

— Mike Leigh