Well, if you’re talking about the current climate, there’s a lack of content in American film because I think people are deeply confused about their emotions, and they don’t regret certain aspects of their own foreign policy.

I’ve had three novels published, and I was working a little bit in theater in Ireland. I wrote one film script just to see what it would turn out like.

I’m less comfortable making American movies because I don’t know them so well.

I walked with them, as crowds have that effect on me, I want to do what they do, to journey towards some point of revelation, which of course never comes.

And I think I often choose to do something because it’s quite different from what I’ve done before.

There’s no point in making a film out of a great book. The book’s already great. What’s the point?

If movies have to satisfy every possible quadrant before they’re even made, they’re dull. You only get great things when people overreach themselves.

The most difficult thing is the organization of people and the expression of your intentions. It’s very easy to have a picture in your head and to imagine that you’ve told everybody about what you need.

I can’t do a film if I don’t start with the writing.

For me now, it’s about what you would write and what you wouldn’t write, and that’s how I select what I am going to do. It can be quite nice being brought a concept by a studio for me to work on.