"I'm still star-struck. I'm thrilled to say that hasn't changed. I think it has a lot to do with coming from nowhere and going somewhere. Where I grew up all there was in live entertainment was a drive-in cimnema. I'm very aware of the leap from there to here. Ultimately, I think I'm too curious and enthusiastic to take any of it for granted." "When an actor asks you to read his script, your heart sinks. The number of scripts I've been given by actors that are so unbelievably terrible! It's well known that actors are lousy writers." "It's a chicken and egg situation you've got to get name actors in order to get the finance, and in order to get the name actors you've got to bullshit that you've got the finance, while all the time you feel the whole thing could just unravel, the wheels come off the pram, everything conspires to make you sink into a pit of self-pity and despair." "Hollywood is on what they call a shit-tide, meaning a tide where stuff comes in and goes out very quickly. People come in, get a part in something, get in a magazine, then they go away and you never hear of them again. The sun shines, the level of paranoia is bottomless and everybody you meet has an agenda. And that's it. Showbusiness, 24 hours a day. If you're doing well, you're a target, nobody's interested in you except how you can be of use to them. And you can't engage with anyone, you can only engage with their agenda. It is all very anti-sex." "What is there now? Famous people running away from explosions. That's it. They call it production values. Audiences will queue round the block to see an unimaginably highly-paid film star running away from a fantastically expensive explosion. They think it's their money's worth. I despair that's what people have to do." "You finish a movie and you think, there, you've done it, really well, or best you can. But if you watch it, you see it was just bullocks. You have to look at the discrepancy between what you hoped and imagined and the reality of yourself and all your shortcomings. You only see your own failure. I'd rather stick with the first idea - just have the experience of working - and leave it at that. You've got to protect the old bravado." "When I see actors talking about world peace, it makes my sphincter weak. There is a difference between Emma Thompson talking about a world catastrophe and - God! - Demi Moore talking about it. Goldie Hawn talking about the elephants has a different impact than Joanna Lumley. Sometimes Hollywood doesn't seem a million miles from a Miss World contest. I just don't have strong enough mental furniture to withstand it." "Hollywood is fear-filled. You only need to be there when the sun is not shining to notice the grim determination and the need to be on every billboard. Every meeting has some agenda. People smile in case you might be of use 10 years down the line. If you are successful everyone is your friend. God forbid that you are in a movie that's a clunker."