I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you might nudge the world a little or make a poem that children will speak for you when you are dead.

I read for interest and enjoyment, and when I cease to enjoy it I stop.

It's not so much that I enjoy screenwriting, though mostly I do, but the difference is, with adaptations, somebody else has done the hard part - made up a story, provided the characters.

I write scenes - often quite long scenes - mainly because I still get seduced into writing six lines where one and a half will do.

A great production of a black comedy is better than a mediocre production of a comedy of errors.

Uncertainty is the normal state.

My work always tried to unite the true with the beautiful; but when I had to choose one or the other, I usually chose the beautiful.