The Problem With Growing Up In A

The Only Lesson To Extract From Any Civil War Is That It's Pointless And Futile And Ugly, And That There Is Nothing Glamorous Or Heroic About It. There Are Heroes, But The Causes Are Never Heroic.

The Best Thing About Writing Has Been The Writer's Life, The Sense Of Being Expressed, The Ownership Of The Day, The Entirely Specious Sense Of Freedom We Have, However Slave We Are To Some Boss Or Other. I Wouldn't Trade It For Any Other Life.

When I Became The Chair Of The British Film Institute, I Didn't Understand How Much Of My Time Would Be Taken Up With Trying To Make A Case For The British Film Institute: What It's For, Why It Exists, Why It Needs Its Money.

There's This Sense Of Being Strange, Which Is At The Heart Of Every Creative Person. Every Writer, Every Actor, Every Director Knows Who Ripley Is. We've Made Careers And Lives Out Of Pretending, Making Things Up, Inhabiting Other People's Stories And Lives. That's What I Do Every Day. . . . The Story Is So Audacious And Subversive: A Central Character Who Behaves Badly And Isn't Apparently Caught. That Intrigued Me No End.

I Am A Writer Who Was Able To Direct The Films That I Write.