I mean I grew up in Ireland, so one would have to be consciously blinkered not to have reflected on the issue of political violence because that was the story since I was 19 years old or 20.

It's the same thing in a way, although writing a book is a very solitary thing.

Well, Company of Wolves was about that literally, about fairy tales.

The most difficult thing is the organization of people and the expression of your intentions. It's very easy to have a picture in your head and to imagine that you've told everybody about what you need.

For me, the filmmaking has to be about the dramaturgy.

I can't do a film if I don't start with the writing.

It's hard to know whether certain characters come to life or not, they either come to have their own life or they don't. I've written many things in which the characters just remain inert.