If you take a really good book, then the potential is for a really good film. But you've got to get it right.

It's possible to disagree with someone about the ethics of non-violence without wanting to kick his face in.

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

If I had to give a definition of capitalism I would say: the process whereby American girls turn into American women.

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

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.

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