Pet lovers know that animals sometimes understand us better than we do and the annals of human sin and desire provide plenty of stories to drive the point home.

We all know the stories about the Human Rights Act... about the illegal immigrant who cannot be deported because and I am not making this up he had a pet cat.

When I was in the Peace Corps I never made a phone call. I was in Central Africa I didn't make a phone call for two years. I was in Uganda for another four years and I didn't make a phone call. So for six years I didn't make a phone call but I wrote letters I wrote short stories I wrote books.

The Scriptures contain many stories of people who waited years or even decades before the Lord's promises came to pass. What modern believers can learn from the patience of biblical saints like Abraham Joseph David and Paul is that waiting upon the Lord has eternal rewards.

I've programmed myself musically to come up with love-feeling tracks that are romantic sexy but classy all in one. And that's the challenge. Once I create that music then the lyrical content starts to come - you know the stories and things like that.

What I'm trying to do is find either existing properties or come up with properties or angles or stories which will create music drama. It's my obsession and most of all I would like to remain working in theatre. I think it's very much alive.

I like movies about longing and desperation and dark and light things stories about people struggling to raise children and to have relationships and be intimate with each other.

In America we have so many movies and so much media about the Islamic world the sub-continental world but it's not a conversation it's a monologue. It's always from one point of view. 'If we don't tell our own stories no one will tell them' is my mantra.

I often begin movies with music in my head it's a very important dimension to me. Not just the music itself but how to use music in film: when and how and subtlety. I don't like to be too sweet in my stories and I like the abrasive clang the contrasting of sounds and cultures.

The movies that influenced me were movies that told their stories through pictures more than words.