We are very anxious to bring the Jews of Morocco over and we are doing all we can to achieve this. But we cannot count on the Jews of Morocco alone to build the country because they have not been educated for this.

Largely this is a class thing - writers tend to be cosseted little middle-class kiddies who think that the world owes them a royalty cheque. But just doing it - being in your room for years on end locked in your head alone with invented ghosts - it weakens and softens the body. And I know I can't just live in my head.

I love the way you can fall in love with a piece of literature how words alone can get your heart doing that.

Despite the demands of this job one of the things my wife and I try to do is to spend time together alone. And one of the things we really enjoy doing together is seeing a good movie.

You have to understand the tone of the movie because if it's supposed to be funny it can be funny violent like the Home Alone stuff but you have to really understand the tone of what you're doing and make the action work for that and for the character.

It felt like the first thing but when I first started out I got a job adapting a book by Russell Banks called 'Rule Of The Bone.' I didn't do a very good job. I didn't really know what I was doing in general let alone how to adapt a book.

In my cranky old age I actually prefer recording alone now on 'The Simpsons ' for example because I find that the director can just focus on what I'm doing and I can do a lot of variations. A lot of times when I record with a group I'll stay after class for another hour or two.

We've just got to be careful - with all sports let alone cricket - I think there's so much emphasis on doing the right thing all the time but I think the public want to be entertained when they come to watch sport.

When I was producing on my own I was doing it in order to - in a very patriarchal entertainment industry let alone planet - very much hell-bent on trying to prove to myself if nothing else that I could do it as a woman.

If I'm alone too long I think too much and I'm not interested in doing that. That won't lead anywhere good I'm sure. If I'm busy I tend to stay out of trouble. An idle mind is the devil's playground.