I'm really interested in the minutiae of different tones and what that explains - how people's backgrounds are reflected in minute details of how they interact. It's true that I'm hypersensitive to all that. Writing is acting in the sense that you're imagining and inhabiting another. In the book I was trying to get at the root of what true acting is.

I'm really interested in the minutiae of different tones and what that explains - how people's backgrounds are reflected in minute details of how they interact. It's true that I'm hypersensitive to all that. Writing is acting in the sense that you're imagining and inhabiting another. In the book I was trying to get at the root of what true acting is.

You work with each individual actor as you perceive their needs to be. It's something that you've figured out in the weeks of pre-production.

Novels have become equally important to me as films. I consider myself a storyteller and passionately engaged in both of those disciplines.

Looking at paintings was a huge part of finding my way into the lush world of the 18th century.

We all have to embrace the idea not to be worried about there being other women in the room. Gay men work with such solidarity.

One of the things that's good for me is that I can go from one art form to another. Because I think if I had to write another novel now I would really not be good in my head anymore. It's too much. The frustration is so intense of knowing that this structure is right around the corner. Writing is a particular kind of frustration.