John Curran

'Tracks' is based on the book by Robyn Davidson who, in the mid-Seventies, decided to leave the city, go to the outback, learn to train camels and walk across the Australian desert to the ocean: a journey that is about two thousand miles and will take about six or seven months.

I lived in New York City, and when I was about 24 in the 1980s, I decided to get out of here. I wanted to go live in Australia for a year or something, and it ended up being 18 years.

The spirit around leaving New York, for me, was that I just felt I needed to do something really outside of my comfort zone. And I really couldn't tell you at the time why I needed to do it. It wasn't like I was running from something dark; it was a desire to shake things up.

I sort of came from a big family - eight kids - and I guess I always, more than most people, really revel in privacy and solitude sometimes.

I personally think that's incredibly therapeutic to just be alone in your own thoughts and not be freaking out.

As long as there's really good actors that use their clout to support fringe films, whatever genre it is, they'll still get made.

If you have a film that's talking about God, you would think that it would appeal to people that consider themselves religious, whatever denomination they're attached to.

I'm not the kind of director who imposes his processes on everybody else.

I cited 'Catch-22' as a landmark film and one of my favourites.

There's something about Alan Arkin. Even when he's doing nothing, he makes me laugh. I've always had that reaction to him: he's got a weary world-view that makes him perfectly cast.

I like to think of myself as the host at a party, and, if everybody is having a good time, so much the better.

A film is different than a script. The text of the script is what it is.

Like a lot of films at the end of 2008, they hit a wall with financing, which is why I moved back onto 'Stone.' In doing so, I had to let go of 'The Beautiful and the Damned,' to at least give them an opportunity to move forward with somebody else.

The worst thing for a filmmaker is for a film to be labeled as pretentious or heavy-handed.

In my experience, not just in shooting films but in the commercials I've done, initially, it's very exciting for the community, and its a real novelty. Very quickly, though, they realize there's a buck to be had, and it becomes annoying, and they lose their patience pretty quick.