The problem with growing up in a cafe was the cafe never closed, my parents worked every day of the year from morning to night. So it was a big menagerie of kids, business and cooking!

Waiting is part of writing. When I write the word 'waiting' by hand it even looks like 'writing.'

The BFI exists to celebrate all poets of world cinema, of the past and present.

I was one of five very clever kids, the other kids were cleverer than I was and still are and are very achieving. The girls were always first at everything and I was always 101st!

I don't hold with the notion that only bad books make good movies.

The only lesson to extract from any civil war is that it's pointless and futile and ugly, and that there is nothing glamorous or heroic about it. There are heroes, but the causes are never heroic.

I have always believed that there is a need for life-affirming films.