We also knew [ me and Ewan McGregor] that, on a practical level, if there was going to be that much sex in the film [Young Adam] - which there clearly had to be because sex is the meat and potatoes of the thing - it had to be varied for the audience, because it's important to keep the audience living in it.

Art is good for my soul precisely because it reminds me that we have souls in the first place.

We talked [with Scott Derrickson] about making it kind of muscular and practical. Yeah it's a fantasy but what's the difference between fantasy and reality really?

Archetypes are always [in my film-making]. It's sometimes interesting to just flip them a little bit and see the underside.

There's nothing I'm particularly keen to hide about my humanity.

I would rather be handsome for an hour than pretty for a week.

The work is different in the sense that I haven't had to travel round the world raising money, or work from the genesis of the project. But the collaboration feels clear always, it's sort of my drug, I'm in it for the conversation. The conversation's the most important part of it.