The great thing about being a writer is that you have a long, perhaps frighteningly long time in which to do your work.

I think striking the right tone for your story is, if you like, the alchemical work of writing.

To me the question of inspiration is an exercise in hindsight. The truth is inspiration is mysterious at the time. I don't think it's ever a rational process.

I love films where you go into the cinema and loosen the edges of yourself and you hopefully enter into the world of the film. You're watching something unfold before you. I prefer the idea of wonder or intense wonder over shock or something.

Although filmmaking is collaborative and involves trust, ultimately it is the director who holds the whole picture together in their head.

The concentration of the elite athlete is akin perhaps to the concentration of the writer.

I've never forgotten what it's like to be in your early twenties, which is not a particularly easy time. You've left your family, you've left the strictures of high school, and you're trying to break free and form yourself but you have to support yourself as well. We don't really give enough credence to that time of life and to its troubles.