The era I love most is the Federal period, just after the Revolution and the formation of the United States. The birth of America as a nation coincided with the Romantic era and I've always been thoroughly into the Romantics and I've always been thoroughly into America, particularly at the time when it was a brand new idea, when it was something brand new in the world. It was a very exciting time in the world because of the birth of America

I never write with particular actors in mind.

Novelists who get shitty about screenwriting invariably can't do it, or they can't hack it in the world of what's really, in truth, very bold and very public enterprise.

London matters to me because it's the center of what I do for a living and has been since Tudor times.

I don't think the latest Star Wars pictures have any artistic intentions, but the original picture opened up epic science fiction.

When I was young I was only thinking of writing, and whatever was going on was unreal and comparatively unimportant.

A writer is a performer as well. A writer isn't the literary department. That gets tried on but nothing's a script unless a good writer goes away and does his thing alone.