You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy or any of your time or any of your space.

Our failings sometimes bind us to one another as closely as could virtue itself.

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

I had the closest thing I have ever had to an out-of-body experience lying in bed one morning. I turned on the 'Today' programme and item four on the news was: 'The shadow chancellor has ruled himself out of the leadership.' I lay there thinking that's interesting then I realised it was me.

There are a lot of impractical things about owning a Porsche. But they're all offset by the driving experience. It really is unique. Lamborghinis and Ferraris come close. And they are more powerful but they don't handle like a Porsche.

I had such a close relationship with my dog and my dog so filled the need in my life to have children that I just wanted Cathy to have that experience.

No characters in 'Stay Close ' including the leads are black and white. I want them to be grey. I think that makes for a much more interesting reading experience something that will stay with you a little bit longer.

No matter how close to personal experience a story might be inevitably you are going to get to a part that isn't yours and actually whether it happened or not becomes irrelevant. It is all about choosing the right words.

One nice thing about being a woman in Hollywood is that the women tend to be very close-knit. All of us writers and directors know each other and cling to each other for safety and support and it's really a completely different vibe than the men experience out here where they're all trying to murder each other.

In those days a concert was a personal experience. I wanted to be as close as possible to the audience and of course big stadiums didn't enable you to do that. It wasn't my style.