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

To what degree are historians chroniclers of the truth and to what degree are they just novelists, frankly?

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.

People test movies within an inch of their life, so that the entire audience experience is a uniform one.

You're working with other people and sometimes it doesn't work out the way you want, and sometimes you didn't realise what a mistake you've made until you see it projected.

The thing that I'm most in love with is the thing that I'm writing at the moment.

I give everything my best shot and sometimes it doesn't work out and other times it works out much better than you thought.