"St. Louis - unbelievable! We went there because, well, there were certain sequences we just couldn't do in New York; they would have tied up the whole city too much. And St. Louis, due to a major fire they had there in 1977, now has just the right amount of emptiness in the downtown area. Also the right architecture. So much of the city looks vacant and dead; perfect for our needs since we couldn't use anything looking new or fresh. The city officials literally turned over the city to us. They'd shut down 10 blocks at a time to help us. I was told they hadn't hosted a major film for 15 years; they don't even have a real film commission, just a Department of Tourism. They let us trash it up, and do anything we needed. A major coup was finding, in St Louis, an exact replica - deserted, desolate, unused - of New York's Grand Central Station, complete with a train engine. Says Carpenter, "I was told it's the biggest roofed-in area in the world. We walked in and said, 'My Lord! We don't even have to dress it!'""

"The city officials not only gave permission, but were very helpful. We were the first film company in history allowed to shoot on Liberty Island, at the Statue of Liberty, at night. They let us have the whole island to ourselves. We were lucky. It wasn't easy to get that initial permission."

"[addressing his followers] They sent in their best man, and when we roll across the 69th Street bridge tomorrow, on our way to freedom, we're going to have their best man leading the way - from the neck up! [cheering erupts] On the hood of my car! [more cheering]"

"So it's entirely fair to say, and I've said it before, that the way Neuromancer-the-novel "looks" was influenced in large part by some of the artwork I saw in 'Heavy Metal'. I assume that this must also be true of John Carpenter's 'Escape from New York', Ridley Scott's 'Blade Runner'", and all other artefacts of the style sometimes dubbed 'cyberpunk'. Those French guys, they got their end in early."

"The world's greatest leader is a hostage in the most dangerous place on Earth. Now only the deadliest man alive can save him."

"Adrienne Barbeau - Maggie"

"In 1988, the crime rate in the United States rises four hundred percent. The once great city of New York becomes the one maximum security prison for the entire country. A 50-foot containment wall is erected along the New Jersey shoreline, across the Harlem River, and down along the Brooklyn shoreline. It completely surrounds Manhattan Island. All bridges and waterways are mined. The United States Police Force, like an army, is encamped around the island. There are no guards inside the prison, only prisoners and the worlds they have made. The rules are simple: once you go in, you don't come out."

"James D'Arcy"

"Keith David"

"Ben Whishaw"

"David Gyasi"

"Jim Broadbent"

"Hugo Weaving"

"Susan Sarandon"

"Jim Sturgess"

"Future, Present, Past..."

"Love, Hope, Courage..."

"Death, Life, Birth..."

"Everything is connected."

"Even as I was watching "Cloud Atlas" the first time, I knew I would need to see it again. Now that I've seen it the second time, I know I'd like to see it a third time — but I no longer believe repeated viewings will solve anything. To borrow Churchill's description of Russia, "it is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma." It fascinates in the moment. It's getting from one moment to the next that is tricky. Surely this is one of the most ambitious films ever made. The little world of film criticism has been alive with interpretations of it, which propose to explain something that lies outside explanation. Any explanation of a work of art must be found in it, not taken to it."

"Halle Berry"

"Hugh Grant"

"Clouds do not really look like camels or sailing ships or castles in the sky. They are simply a natural process at work. So too, perhaps, are our lives. Because we have minds and clouds do not, we desire freedom. That is the shape the characters in "Cloud Atlas" take, and how they attempt to direct our thoughts. Any concrete, factual attempt to nail the film down to cold fact, to tell you what it "means," is as pointless as trying to build a clockwork orange. But, oh, what a film this is! And what a demonstration of the magical, dreamlike qualities of the cinema. And what an opportunity for the actors. And what a leap by the directors, who free themselves from the chains of narrative continuity. And then the wisdom of the old man staring into the flames makes perfect sense."

"Why words slink n' slide off a tongue, when we need them most? If my tongue'd been more bold, could I have stopped all that diresomes about to happen?"

"Now kin n' bros n' half-strangers, yay, even the Abbess, all come knockin', to gape in wonderment like Sonmi herself was sittin' in our kitchen."

"Prescients come barterin' twice a year, their ships creep-crawlin' on waves, just floatin' on the Smart o' the Old Uns."

"Questions about Prescients n' their whoahsome Ship poured thick n'fast... No one queried what fusion engine was... cos they didn't want to look stoopit in front o' the gatherin'. True really was, Meronym answered the questions, but no answer ever quenched your curio. All o' that answerin' done was teach everyone to not trust her, nay, not a flea..."

"You must have misheard me. I said I had a melody, not a malady!"

"Lonesome night. Babbits bawlin', wind bitin' the bone. Wind like this full of voices. Ancestry howlin' at you, yibberin' stories. All voices tied up into one. One voice different, one voice whisperin' out there, spyin' from the dark. That fangy devil Ol' Georgie hisself. Now you hear up close and I'll yarn you about the first time we met, eye to eye."

"...goats, and so do herders, they're known for housing temper."

"Nay, this life all rot n' luck n' no smilin' in some yarnin'. In rear's time, I ever fessed the secret of Sloosha's Hallow. Adam, my bro' by law, n' his son n' me be trekkin' back from Honokaa Market. It was Adam's custom to kowtow his ancestry with offerin's n' honorin's. Suddenwise, that fangy devil's eyes, I felt'em."

"My thoughts? If I'm honest, I admit that the obvious emotions like shock and horror flew as Finch had, here and gone... While deep down, I experienced a nascent sense of a silver lining to this most tragic turn."

"I was for the briefest of moments... Cinderella and all memory of past misfortune receded in the rearview mirror of my dream come true."

"What is a critic but one who reads quickly, arrogantly, but never wisely?"

"I will not be subjected to criminal abuse."

"Composing is a crusade. Sometimes you slay the dragon. Sometimes it slays you."

"True-true."

"Raevan Lee Hanan"

"You can maintain power over people, as long as you give them something. Rob a man of everything, and that man will no longer be in your power."

"Knowledge is a mirror, and for the first time in my life, I was allowed to see who I was, and who I might become."

"I believe death is only a door, when it closes, another opens. If I care to imagine heaven. I would imagine a door opening. And behind it, I would find him there, waiting for me."

"To be is to be perceived. And so to know thyself is only possible through the eyes of the other. The nature of our immortal lives is in the consequences of our words and deeds that go on apportioning themselves throughout all time. Our lives are not our own; from womb to tomb, we are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness we birth our future."

"Honor Thy Consumer"