Artists are the people for whom the world is not enough.

Stories only happen to those who are able to tell them.

It's always a mystery to me, I have to confess. I've never been able to witness the birth of an idea. It seems as if one second, there's nothing particularly going on, and the next second, something is there.

Most of my friends' fathers had been in the war - either as soldiers or in some other capacity in the military. Whereas my father had not fought. He was older and he was in a business that was considered essential to the wartime effort - the wire business - and, of course, I was so young I didn't understand any of this.

Each book I've done somehow finds its own unique form, a specific way it has to be written, and once I find it, I stick with it.

The best filmmakers, I think, have always had very narrow frameworks for their stories, and then they can go deeply, rather than skimming the surface.

All children are love children, he said, but only the best ones are ever called that.