I wasn't into Tolkien at school really. But the story is timeless, the themes that it touches on are contained in cultures all around the world. The innocent on a quest, the pretender, an inanimate object that holds evil - it's really strange that these themes are there in so many different countries' folklore.

I like people like Ani DiFranco, a band called Elbow, of course John Lennon, George Harrison, Barry White. I have a lot of different influences and hopefully they all come together and make some sense.

Life in LA is not lying in the sun for months. It is having a 4pm meeting and leaving at noon to sit in traffic for four hours. Its not glam.

Acting, music, painting... it's very subjective. So what I might think is a great actor, you might think is not a very good actor at all.

I was probably about fourteen I think, and probably like every boy who's fourteen that writes a song, it was about a girl. It was about a girl who I really liked, but she didn't like me as much as I liked her. I think most guys go through that.

Hobbits are a lot like Scots. It’s all about nature and enjoying their land, which is a very Scottish thing.

I'd like to win a Booker Prize for writing. A Nobel Peace Prize for my work in peace... and I think that'll probably do.