I was on the set of 'Braveheart' and my mate says to me, 'Do you think this film will be any good?' And I really meant this, too, I told him 'Let me put it this way - It won't win any awards.' Cut to: five Oscars.

Just in relation to women, it's not that huge an imaginative leap to see the connection between the Taliban and the Catholic Church.

Filmmaking is something I have to do. It's not something I particularly want to do.

When things are really painful, I turn it into comedy.

I did 'Deathly Hallows' so my kids could get on the 'Harry Potter' set. They met Daniel Radcliffe, who was a darling and couldn't have been nicer to them so I'm a hero right now.

If I'm at home on my own and the writing isn't going well, I clean my house. And there have been times in the past few years when my house has looked really clean.

I find the world more absurd now than I did when I was a kid.