Quotes from Andrew Haigh

If you're struggling, it's easy to feel powerless until you take control of it and assert what you want. I can understand that feeling. I can understand how it feels to be alone, to not want to get help from people and to not trust people who are actually wanting the best for you. I feel like that's true for a lot of people, actually.

My straight friends accept I'm gay but they forget that some people don't. Even now, if I go into a party, people don't usually assume I'm gay, so you have to keep coming out. And if you say you've got a film with a gay subject matter, you can sometimes see people's eyes going, 'Oh! OK!'

People don't think the struggles gay people have are worth talking about because everyone's decided that we're all equals now. Those struggles are much more subtle now. But the weight of being different does carry on.

Homophobia obviously still exists, but it is a lot more subtle, and it is a lot more in the background.

I think all of my male characters, I suppose, in all of my films, they're not necessarily the traditional version of masculinity.

Coming from a different perspective on a society is really interesting. I love the Paul Thomas Anderson's 'Phantom Thread,' and that's a version of Britishness and Englishness made by an American.

Being gay, you're kind of forced to ask, I suppose, very existential questions from a very, very early age. Your identity becomes so important to you because you're trying to understand it, and, I think, from the age of, like, 9, you're being forced to ask questions... that other kids maybe don't have to ask.

I have seen a lot of gay-themed films that didn't really express how I see being gay at this moment in the world. There never seemed to be a kind of authentic depiction of relationships.

In my own life, my parents divorced when I was young. I lived with my dad, not with my mum, after they got divorced. And it's been part of my life.

I'm not very good at thinking, 'This is the thing I should do now to help my career.' I mean, I want to keep my career going, but that's not what draws me to a story.

I'm happy to do gay material, and I'm gay, and I'm not embarrassed about it, but it's nice not being limited to only doing gay material.

'Call Me by Your Name' is essentially the universal nature of love.

I don't believe in 'happy ever after' at all as a concept.

I didn't enjoy growing up. I was lonely. That's probably my base level to feel like that.

A lot of gay-themed films are terrible. And mainstream audiences and the press aren't interested, understandably.