Helena Bonham-Carter and I sat down to talk about [Cinderella movie] and she said, 'I really want to do it but only one thing I insist on and that's wings.' She had to have wings and [costume designer] Sandy Powell didn't want wings to begin with but had to be talked around, but that was fun.

I think that a lot of exciting elements are finding a place where a film is happily, truly about something.

Variety is very, very good. Going from medium to medium, if you get the chance to do it, from theater to television to film, which are all distinctly different, keeps me sharp.

As soon as someone I don’t respect tells me I can’t do something, it just makes me want to do it even more.

Actors are the best and the worst of people. They're like kids. When they're good, they're very very good. When they're bad they're very very naughty.

So many plays with magic in them that would be a terrific invitation to an imaginative animation team.

In the hands of a great poet, words have ways of affecting us in ways we don't understand.