"The film explores the difficulties of reconciling the conflict between individual freedom and social order. Alex exercises his freedom to be a vicious thug until the State turns him into a harmless zombie no longer able to choose between good and evil. One of the conclusions of the film is, of course, that there are limits to which society should go in maintaining law and order. Society should not do the wrong thing for the right reason, even though it frequently does the right thing for the wrong reason."

"If you want to create something, hoping it will go beyond yourself, you can't question every step of the process. It may seem contradictory, but the fact that I'm the only one to make the decisions allows me to have less control of things. I want my instinct to be more in control and my intellect to be less in control, allowing me to have ideas, images, and concepts without having to justify why."

"I've had some students ask me, "What advice would you give to an animation writer?" And I'd say, "What is an animation writer? You mean a writer?" Because I don't think there's any difference in writing for animation versus writing for live action. I think writing is writing, character is character, and there's good writing and bad writing."

"Rear Window... is the most cinematic film I have made. Most people don't realise this because the man is in one room, in one position. But, nevertheless, it's the montage and the cutting of what he sees and its effect on him that creates the whole atmosphere and drama of the film. In other words, the visual transforms itself to emotional ideas. That film lent itself to that."

"[Frank Miller's Sin City comics] were already great the way they were. They were already perfectly realised - the best directed, written, shot, edited movies never seen on screen. I even thought they were beyond cinema - they were much bolder than anything we were doing in cinema, visually or story wise. I didn't want to change anything.

The movie industry tends to look at comics as a lesser artform, whereas I tend to think that all this visual storytelling is really the same. It should just translate across."

"In most creative areas, you see something good come along and then you have to sit back and watch while it gets photocopied endlessly. Referencing other stuff has become a style in itself. I respect anyone who makes a conscious effort to at least try to have their own voice... but a lot of people seem to make a virtue of imitation. I don't understand how you can have any pride in your work like that."

"If I really had a passion for something, like Gantz Graf, and someone started fucking around with it, I would turn into a monster; I would do everything within my power to keep that from happening. It's like having someone fiddling with your beautiful daughter, abusing her. I take great offence. Rob and Sean [Autechre] certainly didn't piss me about on it, and that shows."

"The scene at the end of the duel with Lucy Liu? It's supposed to be kind of amusing and poetic at the same time. And also just a teeny-tiny bit solemn. When you see her head, it's funny. And then her line, "that really was a Hattori Hanzo sword", that's funny. But then the next shot isn't funny, when she tips over and Meiko Kaji is singing about revenge on the soundtrack. So, it's all together. Funny. Solemn. Beautiful. Gross. All at the same time."