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I stay up nights and fiddle with my opera designs. It's a bit obsessive. That's why I can't do it all the time.

I think I just have a natural operatic aesthetic. I can't help it.

When I wrote the opera, I made a deal with myself that for at least an hour a day I would work on it, even if it meant just sitting on my piano bench, staring into space and thinking about it. It's about keeping it regular, like your bowel movements - let's get real: it's your bodily artistic movements! It comes from the same place.

I'm by no means an opera buff.

Opera is a beautiful and important diversion for me.

I've held onto little musical sketches that I thought could be useful, and the more time that I spend doing them for each film, then the more I have to draw on.

I used to sketch - that's the way I thought out loud. Then they made a book of my sketches, and I got self-conscious, so now I don't do it much.

Art is all about the experience. I could say I don't really relate to opera, but then you watch Placido Domingo, and you go, 'Blimey, look at that.'

I love doing sketches, but I don't relish being by myself. That's not something I'm used to doing.

But I won't deprive myself of singing opera as long as my voice follows.