I try to work all over the canvas at once, because I feel that the forces of nature are unpredictable.

In the end, what affects your life most deeply are things too simple to talk about.

I'm very grateful for the platform that I've had in my life to speak out about the things I care about.

When I wrote Rick, I had the idea that I would take the plot of nearly every opera and turn it into a dark film, which is something I still may do.

When you are nice to people, they bring their A-game.

I like old-fashioned romance, when the two people sleep in separate beds but still hold hands all night. Their hands rest on a little table between the beds.

Love does not seek equals; it creates them.

Im a pretty organised traveller.

Democracy is better than tyranny.

The public do not know enough to be experts, but know enough to decide between them.

I tell you what's really ridiculous--going into a bookstore and there's all these books about yourself. In a way, it feels like you're already dead.

If I'm staying in a hotel or I'm sleeping on my own I have the hairdryer on.