"Forrester was the oldest of 8 children, in Depression-Era Liverpool. No school, no medicine, no hope - her life was exactly as mine would have been, had I not had the incredibly good fortune to be born after the introduction of the NHS and the Welfare State. I read it as a direct letter from her to me. It politicised me instantly."

"Jack Nicholson is extraordinary in it, but that is an ensemble movie where everyone carries the story. And it’s a movie about social injustice and inequity and the disenfranchised, and it will kill you. It will sway you with its sadness, but in a way that is appropriate, and there is a glimmer of hope at the end, I would say."

"I was moved by the probing philosophical questions this film asks, as well as by the fact that Schrader, now in his early 70’s, has made his most complete and satisfying film as a director. Myself, I hope to grow older and continue to make challenging, confrontational work. I tip my hat to Schrader for this formally disciplined and sometimes despairing film."