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

I read nonfiction. There's very little fiction that I enjoy enough to spend my time reading. I am generally a nonfiction guy.

I don't want to direct. I have no directing ambition whatsoever. And as long as I meet filmmakers like Tom Hooper, Stephen Frears, and others who allow that collaboration, I can't see why I would ever want to direct.

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

The real beauty in my professional experience has been friendships and collaborations with filmmakers.

I can't relax when I'm watching a biographical drama, because it's so close to what it is that I do that I just long for more fiction - so that I can switch off.

I'm always pre-occupied with what it is that I'm doing at the moment.