“I've always tried to make movies that pull the audience out of their seats... I want audiences to be transported.”

“My dad always told me that the principal reason he chose New Zealand to emigrate to after World War II was the high regard his father had for the Kiwis he encountered at Gallipoli.”

“What I think is remarkable about my mum and dad is they had no interest in films, really. None.”

“Obviously, movies, you're often on location, out in the rain or the sun, in a real place where the trees and the cars are real. But when you're on stage, as an actor you're imagining the environment that you're in.”

“I fell in love with stories watching a British television puppet show called 'Thunderbirds' when it first came out on TV, about 1965, so I would have been 4 or 5 years old. I went out into the garden at my mom and dad's house, and I used to play with my little dinky toys, little cars and trucks and things.”

“Once upon a time, sound was new technology.”

“If I'm lucky enough to be involved in the Academy Awards in the future, I'll just let people make up their decision without being involved in any politics. Because it shouldn't involve that.”

“No film has captivated my imagination more than 'King Kong.' I'm making movies today because I saw this film when I was 9 years old.”

“'The Lord of the Rings,' published in the mid-1950s, was intended as a prehistory to our own world. It was perceived by Tolkien to be a small but significant episode in a vast alternate mythology constructed entirely out of his own imagination.”

“48 frames per second is something you have to get used to. I've got absolute belief and faith in 48 frames... it's something that could have ramifications for the entire industry. 'The Hobbit' really is the test of that.”

“One of the best things about growing up in New Zealand is that if you are prepared to work hard and have faith in yourself, truly anything is possible.”