In those days, when you got boxed, that was it. A lot of old people were there because somebody wanted the farm. It was about property. People are treated like property.

This is how psychiatry has functioned-as a kind of property arm of the government, who can put you away if your husband doesn't like you.

It was horrifying. You wouldn't believe how people are treated there. You could see that these people had withdrawn so far that they just lived in their own minds. They did terrible things to themselves.

I'm not the sort to wallow in nostalgia about the good old days.

There were dragons to slay in the old days. Nixon was a good dragon.

I like making films about old people because they are repositories of amazing stories that they tell well. And they're incredibly good telly.