I think what I would say to my younger self and probably to younger just starting-out writers is that a lot of times you're just afraid to put yourself out there and it's uncomfortable because it's working up the courage to do something to push yourself to do those things.

Some of the hip-hop stuff people get into is exciting because there's a passion and there's something to explain to a more mainstream audience so you get these passionate writers who want to express their love for rap and hip-hop which is cool.

I don't think generally speaking people become writers because they were the really good really cool attractive kid in class. I'll be honest. This is our revenge for people who were much better looking and more popular than us. I was a bit like that I suppose.

Here I am paying big money to you writers and what for? All you do is change the words.

I think the true test of a pop song for me and I've talked to a lot of other writers about this is you take your demo you pop it in your car and you drive down Sunset Blvd. to Santa Monica and that's the Hollywood car test.

One thing that worried me was how writers get categorized and so they end up having to write the same kind of book again and again. That is fine if it is what you want to do but I would rather be locked in the trunk of my car with a weasel than write the same book every three years until I die.

I think a lot of writers male and female write as if their parents were killed in a car accident when they were 2 and they have no one to hold accountable. And unfortunately I don't have that. I have parents who I care about what they think.

I've never seen a worse situation than that of young writers in the United States. The publishing business in North America is so commercialized.

I learned what I really love is making films not the film business. I want to be on the set meeting with writers I want that freedom. I love it now.

Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the universities stifle writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a best seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.