I became a virtuoso of deceit. It wasn't pleasure I was after, it was knowledge. I consulted the strictest moralists to learn how to appear, philosophers to find out what to think and novelists to see what I could get away with.

It's great to get out of the study and work with real living and breathing people.

I think there's something degrading about having a husband for a rival. It's humiliating if you fail and commonplace if you succeed.

Since my adaptation of Ian McEwan's 'Atonement,' I get sent a lot of novels that people think will work as movies. So every now and then I make a point of sitting down and reading a couple of them.

There is a sort of theory that you should adapt bad books because they always make more successful films.

I have always thought of sophistication as rather a feeble substitute for decadence.

I find I have to give myself a day when I just shut myself off and do nothing but read.