An old legend tells of how Chartres cathedral was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. People flocked in their thousands from different directions like a vast procession of lemmings from all four corners of the world. All kinds of people came and together they rebuilt the cathedral on the old foundations. They lived their lives by the enormous edifice until it was complete – master builders, labourers, artists, jesters, nobles, prelates and citizens – but they remain anonymous; to this day, no one knows the names of those who built the cathedral of Chartres.

[…] So if someone asks me what I would like the purpose of my films to be I could reply: I want to be one of the artists in the cathedral on the great plain. I want to sculpt from the stone a dragon's head, an angel or a devil, or perhaps a saint, it matters not which; I derive such satisfaction from all manner of things. No matter if I’m a believer or not, no matter if I’m a Christian or a heathen, I help to build the cathedral because I’ve learnt to form faces, limbs and bodies from stone.