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

- Lenny Abrahamson

When we say 'cinematic', we tend to think John Ford and vistas and wide-open spaces. Or we think of kinetic camera movement or of a certain number of cinematic styles, like film noir.

- Lenny Abrahamson

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

- Lenny Abrahamson

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

- Lenny Abrahamson

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

- Lenny Abrahamson

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

- Lenny Abrahamson

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

- Lenny Abrahamson

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

- Lenny Abrahamson

Good filmmakers make bad films; it happens.

- Lenny Abrahamson

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

- Lenny Abrahamson

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

- 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.

- Lenny Abrahamson

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

- Lenny Abrahamson

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

- Lenny Abrahamson

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

- Lenny Abrahamson

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.

- Lenny Abrahamson

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

- Lenny Abrahamson

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.

- Lenny Abrahamson

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

- Lenny Abrahamson

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

- Lenny Abrahamson