I have to say that I've always believed perfectionism is more of a disease than a quality. I do try to go with the flow but I can't let go.

The job is interesting, and the task is difficult, but the man [Maigret] is just a decent man doing a very ordinary job.

It is very linear storytelling, and I think that's not so much the fashion. I was watching a new drama the other night which was extremely non-linear, where you flash back and flash forward in ways that certainly keeps you on your toes as the audience. There's not much of that courage with the storytelling in our Maigret film.

My personal problem is that I take the business of film-making so seriously that I find it very difficult to relax.

You're about as useful as a one-legged man at an arse kicking contest.

The good thing about those original credit card commercials was that they were very "filmic", they were like little movies, so it wasn't a big step to think well maybe we could make a big movie using this character, which we eventually did.

I'm sure that a French production of this [Maigret series] would be different. For better or worse, who's to say, but probably not very good for 8 o'clock on ITV.