The great thing about a short story is that it doesn't have to trawl through someone's whole life; it can come in glancingly from the side.

Now that I've got a way in [to the industry] - because it can feel a bit like, "How can I possibly write a film?" - but now that I've got at least some experience in the film world, I'd absolutely love to do it again.

So much as I enjoy big novels of epic sweep, I often find, say, if they follow several generations, by the third generation, I'm not caring about the people anymore.

Vitamins are medicine for not getting sick and going back to Heaven yet.

What's crucial about being an executive producer is that you stay in the loop, information-wise. They have to share all their major decisions with you.

The idea was to focus on the primal drama of parenthood: the way from moment to moment you swing from comforter to tormentor, just as kids simultaneously light up our lives and drive us nuts. I was trying to capture that strange, bipolar quality of parenthood. For all that being a parent is normal statistically, it's not normal psychologically. It produces some of the most extreme emotions you'll ever have.

There's not a thing wrong with you, you're right the whole way through.