Every time I flicked channels, there I was, talking. I was talking too much and writing too little. So Naomi and I went to Hawaii. The phone was cut off and we lost touch. This gave me the chance to have a good think about my life.

My father could have been deported because on his immigration application he said that he was a printer, obviously because he didn't want them to be checking his writings.

From a writing point of view, you now have teams of screenwriters working with a director. What's lost in the process is the power of that one heart, brain, gut and soul that makes something an original piece of writing.

I worry that we are approaching a time when that which is shocking is squeezed out by the Stalinism of political correctness.

I just wanted to make sure that what I write is what appears on screen, to not have some idiot change it on its way to the screen.

That's sort of what I felt... I miss drinking, I thought bars were truly holy places.

Now the cigarette companies claim that they don't do that [ pay to have their product advertised in movies ] anymore, although it certainly makes you wonder a bit when an independent production like "In The Bedroom", you know, seems to focus constantly on Marlboros and almost it turns into a Marlboro ad, whether there was any money exchanged.