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" I used the same designer and costume designer on 'The Eagle' and 'The Last King of Scotland.' "

Kevin Macdonald

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" My grandfather died before I started making films, but I definitely learnt this from him: believe in your own judgment and stick to your guns - 99% of the time, you'll be glad you did. "

Kevin Macdonald

" When you're trying to make a film, you're trying to find a way to love your subject, and you want your audience to love your subject. "

Kevin Macdonald

" For me, the aim of making any film like this, any film about an artist, would be to send you back to the art. "

Kevin Macdonald

" I can't claim my grandfather's work has influenced mine directly, but his life certainly inspired me to follow this path. "

Kevin Macdonald

" Although 'The Anderson Platoon' was what we would now call an 'embedded film' - with all the ambiguities that term implies - somehow Schoendoerffer got away with showing things as they really were from a grunt's perspective. "

Kevin Macdonald

" People think that the Italians invented neorealism, but actually, Humphrey Jennings did. He was revolutionary in using non-professional actors in his films, and he got extraordinary performances out of them. "

Kevin Macdonald

" Documentary makers use other people's lives as their raw material, and that is morally indefensible. "

Kevin Macdonald

" The relationship between director and subject can become very intense. It's a bit like therapy, with lots of transferences going on. It's easy to feel guilty. "

Kevin Macdonald

" The tradition has always been that in Roman films, the Romans are always British, and it's usually posh British: Laurence Olivier and his ilk. My take on all this was that it's a metaphor for empire and the end of empire. "

Kevin Macdonald

" It's always nice to have the same people that you are familiar with and shorthand with, obviously, to be around you. "

Kevin Macdonald

" The things that are hardest to shoot are the things where you want people just to feel very natural, and you want to do love scenes, and you want to do just kids hanging out and trying to get them to relax. "

Kevin Macdonald

" I don't think life gets any better than sitting in the sun while a legend of French cinema tells you stories about making 'Belle de Jour' and other wonderful films, and eating great food. "

Kevin Macdonald

" In war films, even more than in other kinds of documentary, we've come to think that shaky, poor-quality footage is somehow more authentic than something classically 'well shot.' "

Kevin Macdonald

" For everybody in the world, the answers to the mysteries in your life usually lie in your childhood, your upbringing, and your parents. "

Kevin Macdonald

" I was born at Rotten Row in Glasgow and brought up in Loch Lomond near a small place called Gartocharn. And it's a bit like anyone: where you're brought up, you have an irresistible attraction to that place; it defines who you are. "

Kevin Macdonald

" It is hard to find the soul of Mick Jagger. It is very hidden. I think his true personality has receded so far behind the facade that he can no longer find the real person himself. "

Kevin Macdonald

" I suppose making documentaries is like doing journalism on film. "

Kevin Macdonald

" It's interesting to me that the Arab Spring started in Tunisia, and in the marches, people were singing 'Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights.' "

Kevin Macdonald

" The first documentary I saw that tried to show the actual experience of being a soldier in combat was 'The Anderson Platoon,' by French director Pierre Schoendoerffer, which won the Oscar for best documentary in 1967. "

Kevin Macdonald

" I think my brother always wanted to be a film producer. "

Kevin Macdonald

" The great thing about making a film on a submarine is that it's kind of like making a play. You've got this limited environment. "

Kevin Macdonald

" I don't think of myself particularly as a Scottish director, but you are what you are because the first ten years of your life, and where you spend them, brand you. In that sense, I'll always be a Scottish director. "

Kevin Macdonald

" I think we're all greedy. Who do you know who says, 'I have enough! I don't need any more!'? It's part of human nature. "

Kevin Macdonald

" I went through a period of not watching fiction. "

Kevin Macdonald

" I like to take a little of what I learned in fiction and apply it to documentary and vice versa. "

Kevin Macdonald

" Elvis Presley's estate is making 30 million a year, and they say that Marley shouldn't be, but he is from a much poorer part of the world, and a lot more people need the money. "

Kevin Macdonald

" You can relate to someone with a flaw. "

Kevin Macdonald

" Like a lot of expatriate Scots, when you want to be called Scottish, it's useful. I see myself as being without nationality, as a European: my region is Scotland; my nationality is European - isn't that a very Alex Salmond thing to say? "

Kevin Macdonald

" People listen to The Beatles, but while they were muscially influential, they weren't culturally influential in quite the same way. You can go into the back of beyond in a little Indian village, and they will listen to Bob Marley. But they're not going to be listening to The Beatles or The Rolling Stones. "

Kevin Macdonald

" I always loved digging away at the story, trying to find out things that people don't want you to find out and piecing it all together. I love the treasure hunt aspect of it, the thrill of the chase. "

Kevin Macdonald