Filming is like a long air journey: there's so much hanging around and boredom that they keep giving you food.

The Americans are just more enthusiastic and more likely to engage in hyperbole.

If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play.

Why write about the past? Well, there's more of it.

I don't want to hurt people.

Political correctness is a bit like a granny, a maiden aunt arriving at a party when everyone's having a good time. And she comes in, they all start sort of buttoning up and becoming self-conscious and behaving properly and then when she leaves, you can have fun again.

When you've only got few days of rehearsal before you're in the studio, it's wonderful to start off with people that you have good, friendly, tolerable relationships to start with, for the simple reason that you don't have to spend 24 hours figuring out how sensitive they are, and can you give them a line reading, or how do you have to give them direction.