There's no point in making a film out of a great book. The book's already great. What's the point?

Well, I suppose I'm interested in ways of storytelling and in stories that are about storytelling.

It is extremely difficult to get movies that cost more than $40 million to be made these days.

I took two years away from making films to write a novel.

Initially with The Butcher Boy, there was this kid growing up in this strange, weird environment that I remember from when I was a kid. And Patrick's vision was so complete there.

I had made a decision, although I hardly knew it yet. It's often that way with decisions, they're made in some hidden part of us and the awareness secretes itself slowly into that conscious part of us that imagines it decides.

And I think I often choose to do something because it's quite different from what I've done before.