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.

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.

You know you lose a lot of social skills if you're a writer. You spend too long alone. And its forced me to address that.

I have always believed that there is a need for life-affirming films.

The feeling of not belonging, of not being entirely worthy, of being sometimes hostage to your own sensibilities. Those things speak to me very personally.

I had never thought of myself as a director and found out that I was not. I am a writer who was able to direct the films that I write.