I was interested in the mystical element of humor - was humor part of creation? Is God laughing at us, or with us?

I've always been fascinated by the way that children and animals suffer stoically in a way that I don't think adults do.

Deirdre Maddon has an extraordinary, almost celestial way of telling a story. There are so many great writers now - although I also want to go back and read all of Dickens again.

Every milieu has something ridiculous about it - film-making, the music world, painting - because people who take themselves seriously become funny pretty quickly.

I have a great drive to make things and sometimes I forget to slow down a little.

As if there's a world that exists that you're semi-privy to yet can't quite penetrate - that's how it feels when you're starting a book.

The script is the musical score, and everyone has to play off that score. Even I have to interpret it. The producers are there to eliminate obstacles to that interpretation.