You know what I think happened? After 'Rocky,' I was almost set up in the eyes of the media to make a flop.

Suddenly I've got an overwhelming desire to surround myself with the aura of classical and Romantic art.

Children are the first thing I see in the morning and the last thing I see at night. It hurts me to be away from them for a few hours. It really does. I love them and they're girls, so they know how to push my buttons. But I've learned a lot and I have to thank my wife for that.

I have a lack of fear, whereas in the past the fear of failure was a powerful motivator. Anyway, I have great expectations for the future, but I just don't know if I'm the monarch of all I survey.

Most of the films I myself like don't do very well. Every director, he has a choice, whether to go for subtlety and try to articulate every minute detail, or to go for the broad strokes and hope that the people will fill in between the lines. I tend to go for the broader strokes.

If I'd succeeded right away at acting I wouldn't have sought out writing.

I consider myself something of a raconteur. I have a rather audacious sense of humour.