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

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

Betrayals during war are childlike compared with our betrayals during peace.

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

The feeling of not belonging, of not being entirely worthy, of being sometimes hostage to your own sensibilities. Those things speak to me very personally.

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

I looked around and we were about a mile-and-a-half from land, and I thought, 'OK, I'm going to drown now.' And then I started to flail out and panic. I gradually calmed down and I got home. But the reality was that in that moment I was panicking and I feel like that to me was the clue about Ripley, that Ripley constantly finds himself out of his depth in the film and then reacts very, very badly.