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I liken movies to playing a piano: Sometimes you're playing the chords and different notes with unresolved cadences and playing all major chords that are all over the place, and you're enjoying yourself with a great, simple melody.

Film music should have the same relationship to the film drama that somebody's piano playing in my living room has on the book I am reading.

I went to see 'The Piano' with Holly Hunter when I was in a Paula Vogel play, and I was just gone. I couldn't focus at all. It took that creative part of my brain with it so absolutely.

I love films that make me react emotionally and physically when you walk out of the cinema. Two of my favorite films however have got to be 'The Tree Of Life' and 'The Piano Teacher,' which also stars one of my favourite actresses Isabelle Huppert.

I was really affected by 'The Piano.' Had I not seen that movie, I wouldn't have gone to film school.

I saw the film 'Amadeus' from when I was five, which made me want to take piano lessons.

Yeah, 'Requiem for a Dream' - it'll put you off a lot of things, that film, that's for sure.

'The Piano Lesson' is very sophisticated, easily the most adult or complex material I've attempted. It's the first film I've written that has a proper story, and it was a big struggle for me to write. It meant I had to admit the power of narrative.

I'm writing a movie about Mozart going to New York in the '60s. I've been reading so many novels.

Some of my favorite films are musicals, like 'Walk the Line,' 'The Rose' and 'Lady Sings the Blues.' I just love the way the music and the story fuel each other.