Having a phone call from Steven Spielberg was just a fantastic rite of passage. I loved it, and he was very focused, very likable, strictly business, and really sharp.

The minute you become a leader of a country, you go into a very small club. You join that sort of pantheon of other world leaders.

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

I never go back over something I've done and I never watch them again.

If you're growing up in times of peace and live in a country where there's plenty of food and good healthcare, you grow up without any relationship with death.

When you make a choice as a writer about what it is you want to write, and what it is you're going to spend six months thinking about, you have to fall in love.

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.