The way you write a screenplay is that you close your eyes and run the movie in your head and then you write it down.

When you're writing for the screen, you have to be hyper-conscious every moment of how the audience is going to react. If you write just one scene where the audience is confused or it breaks their concentration in some way, then you've lost them, and you might never get them back.

If you're offended, it's your problem.

What I've always seen in writers and artists is the courage it takes to make an original work of art. I think the real risks in literature are linguistic and intellectual, and I hope we can highlight those, as well as political courage.

At the height of the British Empire very few English novels were written that dealt with British power. It's extraordinary that at the moment in which England was the global superpower the subject of British power appeared not to interest most writers.

Once you put a thought into the world, it can be disagreed with, but it can't be unthought.

Bin Laden was born filthy rich and died in a rich man's house, which he had painstakingly built to the highest specifications.