I always say, 'I really need to take a break.' It's three days in and I'm getting pretty bored.

One of the great joys of my job is that you spend a huge amount of time investigating different areas of literature.

Actually, to be honest, this is a useful time to not be knowing what I'll be doing in 2013 or 2014, because really, for the last however many years, I've known what I've been doing for years and years ahead. You get into a cycle of non-reflection, and that gets a bit scary.

I am, in fact, Superman. Every morning I wake up and go into a telephone booth and change my costume, and then go to work.

I never want to make a film. I don't wake up in the morning going, 'Ooh, I'd really love to be on set making a film today'. I'm aware that other contemporary film directors perceive film-making as what they do, as what they have to do. But I would hope that I am more catholic in my tastes.

When I got married, my mother was very surprised. She said: What on earth is going on? I thought you were gay?

At school, I decided I wanted to be a director and then I went out and spent the rest of my adult life trying to be a director. It was really clear to me. So in that sense I was very lucky.