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

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

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.

I think it's restrictive to typecast myself as a novelist because I enjoy other forms of expression. I love literature and I love cinema.

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.

One of the most ephemeral and important things is atmosphere and tone and it's very hard to put your finger on what creates that.

I always find it extremely hard to remember the act of beginning. I almost deliberately forget it.