It’s like having to make a choice: a blessing or a curse. The one thing you can’t do is choose neither.

True education flowers at the point when delight falls in love with responsibility.

You cannot change what you are, only what you do.

That's the duty of the old, to be anxious on behalf of the young. And the duty of the young is to scorn the anxiety of the old.

After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.

One curious thing about growing up is that you don't only move forward in time; you move backwards as well, as pieces of your parents' and grandparents' lives come to you.

We don't need lists of rights and wrongs, tables of do's and don'ts: we need books, time, and silence. Thou shalt not is soon forgotten, but Once upon a time lasts forever.

I stopped believing there was a power of good and a power of evil that were outside us. And I came to believe that good and evil are names for what people do, not for what they are.

If you want something you can have it, but only if you want everything that goes with it, including all the hard work and the despair, and only if you're willing to risk failure.

Read like a butterfly, write like a bee.

Just finished 'Secrecy' - truly enthralling both as a love story and as a tale of suspense - but much more than both.

There's a threshold of pain, a person loses consciousness in order not to die. And there's a threshold of grief, it suddenly stops hurting. And you feel nothing. Nothing at all.

That's the thing, though. You always think you want to be noticed. Until you are

The rocks will melt with the sun before tuition fees are introduced in Scotland.

Patience is a particular requirement. Without it, you can destroy in an hour what it might take you weeks to repair.

You can be a little lonely because it's an individual sport.

The art of making films is a collaborative art. As a composer, you're always working with the cinematographer because he's so much the heart of the world they've created on film.

Circumstances-what are circumstances? I make circumstances

Your choices decide your fate. Take the time to make the right ones. If you make a mistake, that's fine; learn from it & don't make it again.

When our feet hurt, we hurt all over.