My own belief is that most people are trying to do their best. It doesn't mean they have no nasty side, or that they don't have a bad temper, or that they have never done anything they feel ashamed of. But fiction operates on people waking up trying to be horrible, and I don't think most people are trying to be horrible.

A lot of actors find it impossible not to ask for the audience's sympathy. They have a need to twinkle.

To me, all success is a delightful surprise, since one can absolutely never predict it.

I mean the truth is, I've always been interested in the whole setup of the old world.

For most directors, the scriptwriter is about as welcome on set as a member of the Taliban.

My parents came from different backgrounds. My father's was grander than my mother's, so my mother had... to put up with the disapproval of my father's relations.

Life is a game in which the player must appear ridiculous.