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

There was a moment in the early '80s when I wanted to work on films and wanted to live in L.A.

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.

You see, I always divide people into two groups. Those who live by what they know to be a lie, and those who live by what they believe, falsely, to be the truth.

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

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

I like L.A., but I think whats changed is that the kinds of films I do, the mid-range dramatic film, has become an endangered species.