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I always start with characters rather than with a plot, which many critics would say is very obvious from the lack of plot in my films - although I think they do have plots - but the plot is not of primary importance to me, the characters are.

For me, plot always comes out of character, so I had to be sure of my characters.

Characters are incredibly important, but I tend to build them around the plot during the outline stage. However, once I'm writing the manuscript, the characters I'm writing dictate how the plot unfolds.

Plot and character are virtually the same thing.

I start with characters, and then I start writing, and then, if I'm lucky, things start to happen.

I try to trace the connection between the characters and that way a story or plot emerges.

Characters are so important to a story that they actually decide where the story is going. When I write, I know my characters. I know how things are going to end, and I know some important incidents along the way.

I definitely feel that plot flows from character. I don't believe that you can construct a plot and insert people into it.

As a matter of writing philosophy, if there is one, I try not to ever plot a story. I try to write it from the character's point of view and see where it goes.

There is no 'right' way to begin a novel, but for me, plot has to wait. The character comes first.