I don't think if you asked any of my childhood friends they would say that I had a weird childhood; they might say there weren't a lot of regular rules, the conversations in the house were always very open, dreams were a great thing to talk about, everybody was making something all the time.

Writing was my companion and stories were my companion when I was bedridden and didn't think I was going to walk again and all of that treacherous stuff. And stories are how you can comfort a child. It's certainly how I comforted my daughter, in good and bad times.

The closer you are to people, the more you realise what has happened to them.

My life is perfectly happy and giggly and I'm perfectly grateful every day; if there are problems to have, the ones I have are the ones to have; I'm lucky.

I may not be wealthy; I'm living from pay check to pay check, but I get to make movies, which is what I love to do.

Pressure is an emotional paralysis. It's hard enough to do the dishes when you're feeling pressured, let alone make a movie.

When you finish some film and you let it out there, it is completely out of your control. You've done what you've done, you haven't done what you haven't done, and now you are up for judgment. People can be all kinds of ruthless and they can be all kinds of wonderful. The joy in what I do is in the doing of it. And then there is the part where people are either going to see what I've offered and liked it or they are going to see what I've offered and wish they hadn't.