Julia Leigh

I think it's restrictive to typecast myself as a novelist because I enjoy other forms of expression. I love literature and I love cinema.

I think patients and doctors alike minimise the physical, emotional, and financial toll of IVF.

I wanted to transmit what it feels like to be on the so-called IVF emotional rollercoaster, and I guess I wanted to offer a shared aloneness to anyone who's desperately longed for a child.

Work infuses my whole life. My creative life is my real life, so it's hard to separate.

I became so focused on this desire to have a child that it really took over over my life, not in a positive way. It definitely impacted on my work, life, and work opportunities: I couldn't travel at particular times. I turned down a lot of opportunities, to be honest.

The great thing about being a writer is that you have a long, perhaps frighteningly long time in which to do your work.

All this talk about writing is a little bit moot, because it is almost an unthinking process. It is actually a paradox because you are constantly making choices.

I think striking the right tone for your story is, if you like, the alchemical work of writing.

The concentration of the elite athlete is akin perhaps to the concentration of the writer.

I think every single person perceives things differently. We are all singular.

I don't think good films have messages.

I, myself, don't like to see a film on Friday night and then forget it by the next day.

We stitch together our days and edit out our nights.

The point is the 'me' that you see before you is not the 'me' in my private little space, shape-shifting into the writing role, nor is it the 'me' that works with the actors. Here, at the end of the film doing interviews, I feel like I'm in disguise.

Although filmmaking is collaborative and involves trust, ultimately it is the director who holds the whole picture together in their head.

The most important thing is to have something important to say and finding the means to say it.

To me, the question of inspiration is an exercise in hindsight. The truth is, inspiration is mysterious at the time. I don't think it's ever a rational process.

I'm trying to get under people's skin in a way. I don't like films that go in one ear and out the other.

There is a difference between a voyeur and a tender witness. Maybe I think the audience is more of a tender witness than a voyeur, which has a shady undertone.

It's dangerous to think too much about how a film will be received. Filmmaking is not a popularity contest. Some would disagree.

One of the most ephemeral and important things is atmosphere and tone and it's very hard to put your finger on what creates that.

I do believe we're all adaptable, and you're probably more adaptable than you realize.

I've never forgotten what it's like to be in your early twenties, which is not a particularly easy time. You've left your family, you've left the strictures of high school, and you're trying to break free and form yourself but you have to support yourself as well. We don't really give enough credence to that time of life and to its troubles.

I always find it extremely hard to remember the act of beginning. I almost deliberately forget it.

An IVF patient is - is living and breathing hope. It's... it's, um... it's - You wouldn't do it if you didn't have a sense of hope. Why would you put yourself through it?