The trick is the paradox – turning your story inside out. Now if it is something that appears to be of total normality and then suddenly turns inside out and is a different thing all together then that’s fun to write.

The only folk I can judge are people like Woody Allen who I think is a genius, largely because I think he has beaten the system. He has his own company, and his films are all his own ideas. It’s his direction, and so it comes out the way he imagined it.

You get to Hollywood and you are in the land of big money where they don’t like to see only one screenwriter’s name. It’s much better if you’ve got four or five.

I wanted to write a story that demanded the viewer’s attention.

I’m in my 80s and not a keen television fan.

Big Brother sounded like a silly stunt and that’s what it is.

All stories should have some honesty and truth in them, otherwise you’re just playing about.

I don’t judge other people’s work and I don’t see enough of it either.

What can there be concerning outer space but ignorance?

I prefer doing original scripts because I totally control the story - it's all mine. Films don't work like that but television does.