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Screenwriting is the most prized of all the cinematic arts. Actually, it isn't, but it should be.

I've always been a writer, I've always been a storyteller, but I never thought about screenwriting.

There's a satisfaction I get from writing fiction that I will never get from screenwriting.

I find playwriting to be incredibly difficult compared to screenwriting. Part of it is that I grew up watching movies and not watching plays.

I think, in a weird way, the reason I was drawn to screenwriting and the reason I really love doing it is because I love writing dialogue.

English writing tends to fall into two categories - the big, baggy epic novel or the fairly controlled, tidy novel. For a long time, I was a fan of the big, baggy novel, but there's definitely an advantage to having a little bit more control.

I think the most satisfying part about filmmaking is seeing a production in full bloom. When I write, I write in isolation.

Screenwriting is a much more collaborative effort. When you write a novel, it's just you, with input from your editor.

For me, writing has always come out of living a fairly to-the-bone kind of life, just really being present to a lot of life. The writing has been really a byproduct of that.

I think there's something quite interesting about the almost tragic quality of a lot of overwrought prose, because it has a much more self-conscious awareness of its own failure to touch the real.