"Ten years ago I would have been dumbstruck by the attitude of Equity. Nowadays, however, we appear to be conditioned to the erosion of our liberties, and seem to have lost the will to fight for what we believe is right, and not for what is fashionable. Actions like that of Equity can only inflame the situation, whereas art should break down barriers, not help create them. I have been uplifted by the spirit of the people, Black and white. Not all Rhodesians agree with [prime minister] Ian Smith, but I have a feeling most people respect him."

"If you understand comedy, you understand life. Drama, death, tragedy – everybody has these. But with humour you've got all these, and the antidote. You have found the answer. It doesn't follow that because you are a good comedy writer, you're a happy fellow. I've got one of the most miserable faces in the world. I am only happy when I am working. If I'm not working, I get screwed up because my time is going, my life is slipping by."

"[To Jimmy Edwards] Don't forget we are talking to rebels."

"My theory is that we are all idiots. The people who don’t think they’re idiots — they’re the ones that are dangerous."

"I always say to young people, you can have the best script, be the funniest man, but if they don't laugh — you're not a comedian."

"Nic Roeg inspires me. He’s one of the greatest British film directors. His work is bold, challenging, cinematic and full of mesmerising ideas."

"' is one of the most prophetic and disturbing films you’ll see, and I challenge you to find anyone who can find another film from that era which provides the same level of social commentary."

"And for the genre stuff I'm a big fan of Carpenter, Romero, Peckinpah, and Polanski, because they're unremitting and real and brilliant at showing characters under unbearable stress and unafraid of challenging us with uncomfortable truths as well as being just incredible filmmakers."

"No one is evil, they just make very bad decisions. And no one has super powers, they only have their street smarts."

"I love films, I eat, sleep and drink them, and genre definitely had a huge impact."

"The pure emotion, from a very early age, of seeing a film and feeling it take you over like a high... At first it was all the things I loved as a kid -- James Bond films and Spaghetti Westerns and things like that (which I still love). Then I started discovering the masters and finding out which films spoke to me and when they did -- the total immersion, the experience of being taking to another world for a couple of hours, opening your mind to new things and ideas on such an emotional level. How could you not fall in love with that?"

"I’ve directed a fair amount of stuff in the past, such as music videos, commercials and short films and I believe that the best way to learn in this industry – I mean, you can go to film school and that’s good – but ultimately, the only way you’re ever going to learn is through raw experience."

"Blackburn also took an interest in the dynamics of friendships between men and the psychological games that can become part of this."

"Olly has created a distinctive and glamorous look that belies the fact that the entire film was shot in less than a month."

"Director Olly Blackburn has, for the last ten years, been one of the most respected and in-demand directors of music videos and commercials."

"The core idea was to be as realistic as possible and we wanted people to identify with the characters."

"I think Donkey Punch is an extreme thriller or an extreme reality-based thriller. The whole point of the film is it's grounded in reality."

"Making Donkey Punch was all about energy, speed and intense work."

"I suppose my mega heroes are the films of Michael Powell and Sam Peckinpah. I would have loved to have looked over their shoulder. I’m a bit of a cinephile. I love cinema. It’s an amazing medium. I can go and watch anything from very, very arty films to huge Hollywood spectaculars and everything in between."

"I think when you’re shooting on such a tight budget and schedule, the insanity and the energy and the sense of spirit is what makes the experience unique. Ten percent more isn’t going to make enough of a difference and anything that would — double the budget, triple the time — then you’re making a different kind of film."

"The film is about what happens when real people do ghastly things to each other, and sure, it shows those things because that's the tone of the film — fairly realistic."

"Donkey Punch is a very extreme, real-world thriller – it’s about characters and events that are based in reality and it pushes them into very dark and extreme situations where they have to do things that they would never have imagined. The film shows all this quite realistically and doesn’t pull its punches."

"I knew we needed brave actors - the story called for scenes that might be frightening to some - and we needed it to be real and believable."

"Dick Van Dyke was older than me and I was playing his dad."

"We grabbed their hands and dragged them home. Ah, I hope they’ve forgiven me."

"Dance teachers should be certified in this country."

"In my day everything wasn't so PC."

"I would make a fool of myself...They are so much better than I was."

"[Hip-hop dancers] are stunning in what they can do. What's happening is they're starting to go to class; they're actually starting to get some professional lessons. And that, for me, is very exciting because we've always discussed fusing the different styles. And to see them take it on board now and to do different things, even ballroom, is terrific, because nobody can do what they can do. So, if they then start doing what other people can do, wow. They're going to be very dangerous contestants."

"It saddens me a great deal that, you know, so many kids turn around and say, 'My dad doesn't want me doing this.' It's this terrible image that some people have got of 'My son's going to dance' and 'Oh, my God, is he gay?' No. 1, if he is gay, then still be proud of him. What's wrong with being gay in this day and age? But No. 2, don't just associate dance with being gay. It's just so wrong, you know?""

"The minute you take away somebody the public's voting for, you're screwing with the program. There's no logic to it."

"Sudden resolutions, like the sudden rise of the mercury in the barometer, indicate little else than the changeableness of the weather."

"The virtue of Paganism was strength: the virtue of Christianity is obedience."

"To those whose god is honour, disgrace alone is sin."

"Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail."

"Some people carry their hearts in their heads; very many carry their heads in their hearts. The difficulty is to keep them apart, and yet both actively working together."

"The ultimate tendency of civilization is toward barbarism."

"Nothing is further than Earth from Heaven: nothing is nearer than Heaven to Earth."

"Our poetry in the eighteenth century was prose; our prose in the seventeenth, poetry."