I need as much of the business of making a film to be in my own workspace. It really ought to be a bit more like doing a novel, alone, at first. I'm feeling my way.

You just have to know what you want and what you're doing and it leads to a kind of general well-being, which I think you sensed when you were there.

T.S. Eliot, who learned to swim at the same beach as I did, just threw in the towel and moved to Cheyne Walk. I'm not going to do that but I'm not scared of the open channel between me and Britain.

When I was very young, you would get the TV listings from The Globe and The Herald, and you would basically go through them, circle things, and map out your viewing week.

As far as executing work is concerned, you do it all in order. You do it in contractual order. There's no overlap, it's just continuation of your ordinary work. You move from one project into another.

If you decide to do Hamlet in a funny hat staged in a ruined factory, it doesn't make you Shakespeare.

It's interesting to think that my children know more about the process than many mature critics.