I'd always liked to read, but when I picked up books I wasn't getting the same kind of excitement from them that I was from going out clubbing. I wanted to get the same kind of feel.

There's no one way of telling a story or looking at reality, so I think any device is up for grabs as long as it fits in with the tone.

I'm not really interested in courting controversy, but I am interested in exploring issues that other people would deem to be controversial.

Everything in the street today seems soft focus.

If the media is just a cheerleader for an authoritarian populist, who isn't that popular, then we're in a sorry state. The media has to be critical - it has to scrutinize it, it has to call out things.

In America I think we need to move towards a social democracy, European-style basically, and I think that in Britain we do as well.

There's that horrible-beautiful moment, that bitter-sweet impasse where you know that somebody is bullshitting you but they're doing it with such panache and conviction...no, it's because they say exactly what you want to hear, at that point in time.