The mistake of the West was to put the Sauds on the throne of Saudi Arabia and give them control of the world's oil fortune, which they then used to propagate Wahhabi Islam.

I have to say that after some initial resistance, I'm now a complete 'Game of Thrones' addict.

Sometimes we feel we straddle two cultures; at other times, that we fall between two stools.

It's one thing to say, 'I don't like what you said to me and I find it rude and offensive,' but the moment you threaten violence in return, you've taken it to another level, where you lose whatever credibility you had.

Children like being a little scared, but they don't want to be disturbed.

I want to write novels. I want to write stories. I want to do the stuff that I became a writer to do.

What I found interesting writing a screenplay as opposed to writing a novel is not the obvious thing, which is having to pare everything down and find the kind of essence, the skeleton if you like, which can then be fleshed out by performance and cinematography.