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" I'm not particularly ethnically Scottish; I have one grandfather who is Scottish, although he's called Macdonald, and you don't get a lot more Scottish than that. The Scottish part of my family are from Skye, and I've always been very aware of that - always been very attracted to Scottish subject matter, I guess. "

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" I think everything that I've done, I've been involved with for longer. Either you develop it from scratch, or you take something, and you develop it, and you work on the script, but I'm not sure how good I'd be at just sort of taking a piece of material and being a director for hire like that. "

Kevin Macdonald

Director

Good

You

" 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

Documentary

Think

" As a filmmaker, I'm interminably curious and nosy, but certain times you meet people and think, 'I don't want to push you too hard because I can see this is painful for you.' "

" 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. "

" The thing with newspapers is that they are a filter. We're relying on the editors of that paper to be a filter and to tell you that this is worth reading about, this is quality, and this is quite reliable. "

" The only obligation you have as a film-maker is to tell your version of the truth and to use your film to illuminate reality. Whatever that means. "

" Young people read their news online; they expect to get their news for free. "

" John Lennon made wonderful music, which people listen to as music. Nobody around the world is living their life according to the precepts of John Lennon. "

" I love submarine movies. "

" 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. "

" You can relate to someone with a flaw. "

" It's so nice to be totally artistically free. "

" I've fallen out very badly with some of the subjects I've interviewed, because they see their lives a certain way; to step into a cinema and see your life depicted in another way can come as a terrible shock. "

" The Internet has meant that advertising has migrated; there are hardly any classifieds in newspapers any more because they're all online. If people have a car to sell, for example, they sell it online; they don't go to the newspaper. "

Kevin Macdonald

Car

People

" It feels like we're all so familiar now with the traditional three-act structure that, actually, stories that are more complex, more naughty, that allow for disagreement and discussion, are more interesting to us. "

" I love Humphrey Jennings. People ask me who my favorite documentary maker is, and he's certainly in the top three. "

" 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. "

" The submarine genre is a category with all its own rules. But shooting on water is famously tough. "

" We should not confuse having a Flip camera with making a documentary. "

" People who die in an untimely way who are artists, somehow that validates their art, we feel. Why culturally we feel that, I don't know. "

" 'Uprising' was one of the first three or four albums I ever bought in 1980 when I was 13, and that had a strong impact on me. "

Kevin Macdonald

Four

Impact

" I suppose that I'm easily bored. "

" Every film that is made about the past is always a reflection of the present. "

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

" In film, I believe things should either be documentary or drama. "

" What got me into making movies was that I wanted to be a journalist. "

Kevin Macdonald

Journalist

Movies

" I recommend to any of you, that's always a good way to make a film: use the interesting bits. "

" I've done a few celebrity-related things, and I think on the first one - about Mick Jagger - I got stung and was not able to make the film I wanted to make. "

" 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. "

" 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

Singing