I think we all suffer from guilt at some point in our lives but for the most part I never really regret and I try to always remain positive. Yes I think that those issues are very interesting to play in a character and they're prominent issues in life and I think people can relate to them.

Political folk talk a lot these days about 'messaging' - a neologism designed to describe the way in which parties and politicians consciously characterize their efforts. It is only intended to be positive - i.e. 'Our messaging is designed to show we care.'

This idea that a book can either be about character and feeling or about politics and idea is just a false binary. Ideas are an expression of the feelings and the intense emotions we hold about the world.

On the contrary the characteristic element of the present situation is that economic questions have finally and irrevocably invaded the domain of public life and politics.

Politics ruins the character.

Every two years the American politics industry fills the airwaves with the most virulent scurrilous wall-to-wall character assassination of nearly every political practitioner in the country - and then declares itself puzzled that America has lost trust in its politicians.

The whole thing about making films in an organic film on location is that it's not all about characters relationships and themes it's also about place and the poetry of place. It's about the spirit of what you find the accidents of what you stumble across.

And my father was a comic. He could play any musical instrument. He loved to perform. He was a wonderfully comedic character. He had the ability to dance and sing and charm and analyze poetry.

One of my biggest pet peeves is that I just don't like it when characters do things that are funny to the writer but you don't know why they're doing it and it doesn't make any sense.

The point of departure of the process to which we wish to contribute is the fact that war is the natural reaction of human nature in the savage state while peace is the result of acquired characteristics.