Sometimes you are lucky enough to get offered things and there is no rhyme or reason.

A 20-year-old is never going to give death a second thought, whereas someone in their late 50s is going to think about it... I don't know, 20 times a day.

I just try and do something good. But as a writer, you're slightly out of control.

The stuff that I have perhaps become known for that's based on fact, and English statesmen shouting at each other all the time, doesn't entirely represent who I am. I am not a politics wonk.

If you have distance from the events, then your story can work as an analogy or parable, rather than its literal narrative.

It's really a lovely feeling to write knowing that failure is taken off the table because if it's bad you just never show it to anyone.

You don't really work together with Clint Eastwood. I mean, he takes the script and he shoots it - and he shoots it very faithfully.