I love the idea of spies in love. How would it work between two people who were so programmed to lie and be suspicious, who have a whole life based on pretence?

The writing is really hard. You're alone. It really pulls it out of you. You pull it out of your head. But when you're a director, you're shopping - you're picking this actor, you're picking this scene. It's like the most intense kinetic high-speed shopping of all time. You sit in a chair and it will all come rushing at you like a wind tunnel.

I spend a lot of time in a sort of free state when I'm writing in the beginning and sketching.

If you think about it, episodic filmmaking has not been something that people have really done.

Everyone I know who used to be in the intelligence community is moving into the corporate world.

Once a film costs a certain amount of money, things have to round off.

I like emotions, but I really don't like sentimentality, and I don't like when things break their spell.