There's a real danger in trying to stay king of the mountain. You stop taking risks, you stop being as creative, because you're trying to maintain a position. Apart from anything else that really takes the fun out of it.

You shouldn't change what you are in the search for success.

I wanted to put all my family stories down for my girls, and I remember everything so vividly. I just wanted to put everything down while I still can remember it all.

It's a whole other way of working when you work in films: You know exactly the arc of your character.

But you finally think, there is what there is, and you have to work within those confines and just keep chipping away at your own work.

I've not had a mean life.

I lived an idyllic 'Huckleberry Finn' life in a tiny town. Climbing trees. Tagging after brothers. Happy. Barefoot on my pony. It was 'To Kill a Mockingbird'-esque.