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

You've got to play what people think you are, rather than what you are. You have to have a sense of what you are as you're playing what people think you are.

I've had three novels published, and I was working a little bit in theater in Ireland. I wrote one film script just to see what it would turn out like.

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

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

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

Well, if you're talking about the current climate, there's a lack of content in American film because I think people are deeply confused about their emotions, and they don't regret certain aspects of their own foreign policy.