If all political parties are committed to the role of the free market, the politicians act as, I don't know, as traffic policemen; they stand outside the ring and let the real decisions be slugged out by entrepreneurs. That doesn't seem to me a proper democracy.

Ken Loach

The far right was on the march in the 1930s, and we defeated the fascists through a great united working-class effort. That sense of unity and strength is what gave people confidence to change things.

Ken Loach

I don't think films about working class people are sad at all; I think they're funny and lively and invigorating and warm and generous and full of good things.

Ken Loach

We have to defend the migrant workers and give them our support and demand that they have the rights that workers here have from day one, but absolutely hate the system that forces people to leave their country, leave their homes, leave their families, to go somewhere else to be exploited.

Ken Loach

There has been no more principled opposition to racism than Jeremy Corbyn: he was getting arrested for protesting against Apartheid when the rest of them were doing deals and calling Nelson Mandela a terrorist.

Ken Loach

I challenge the idea that films about rich people are escapism and films about working class people are dour and sad. I find the opposite's the case.

Ken Loach

If you're a politician, you can see there might be times when, to secure the greater good, you have to take a backwards step. That is a matter of tactics.

Ken Loach

Most cities are eclectic. There's a bit of medieval, Georgian, some Victorian and some 20th century. That's fine. Bath is different because it was built within 100 years or less. It has a homogeneity.

Ken Loach

You'll get unsociable people whatever the nationality, colour, race or creed. I guess the British abroad have probably got the worst record of anyone.

Ken Loach

Bath was dusty and a little shabby when we moved here. It did look its age and you felt its history in its streets and buildings and little alleyways. The sense of the past was palpable. There were some bad modern buildings but there was a patina of age.

Ken Loach

The problem is, if you make a film that has certain implications in the story, and then you don't follow through, it's a cop out really, isn't it?

Ken Loach

It's more interesting to see new people on the screen when you go to the cinema. I don't want to see the same old faces.

Ken Loach

In general I think that in art you only have the responsibility to tell the truth.

Ken Loach

A film has got to demand to be made. Otherwise - if it's just, 'Shall we? Why not?' - you shouldn't make it.

Ken Loach

The most enjoyable things are the old eighteenth-century terraces that are still standing, that domestic architecture.

Ken Loach

I was stage-struck from an early age. I just loved the language. We lived quite near Stratford so I would cycle and watch the plays.

Ken Loach

The old Craven Cottage stadium at Fulham, before they built the river stand; that was a great place to watch football. When the football wasn't very good, people used to turn around and watch the boats on the river.

Ken Loach

I think that's one of the things that sport teaches you. You are only as good as the team around you.

Ken Loach

I think people think of auteurs as being a dictator shouting over everyone about his vision. That's not the way I think of auteurs or the way I work.

Ken Loach

A journalist uses the most precise words he or she can. An artist does the same sort of thing. You gather material about a particular subject, you refine it as best you can.

Ken Loach

I think it's time British filmmakers stopped allowing themselves to be colonized so ruthlessly by U.S. ideas and stopped looking so slavishly to the U.S. market. It demeans filmmaking when they do that.

Ken Loach