When you're doing those operation scenes, you not only have to be on top of the dialogue and the rhythm of the dialogue and what's happening dramatically, but you've got to technically get the rhythm right, so that everything is fitting with the dialogue at the right time. And you're performing the operation to the audience that's watching it. Thackery has to present it, as well. In some ways, that's the most challenging.

I've got an age that I do think of myself.

You go back to those films of the '40s and '50s and hear the dialogue, the way the people played off each other, the wordplay. I think we've really lost that in movies.

As far as career goes, make sure you're in it for the right reasons - and make sure that the work itself is the most important thing.

The worst piece of advice I've gotten in my whole career is from somebody who said, Remember, it's all about likeability.

If you are making a script based on a book it can be frustrating going back to the source novel, because you're turning the story into a totally different thing; the narrative of film is different from that of a book.

I think anybody who bets on horses and says they win is probably a liar.