I have boys, and boys are particularly resistant to reading books. I had some success recently with Sherman Alexie's great young adult novel 'The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian.' I told my son it was highly inappropriate for him and one of the most banned books in America. That got his attention, and he raced through it.

I love the detail about the workings of the human heart and mind that only fiction can provide - film can't get in close enough.

I have the same interests as women. Well, apart from football and music, obviously. I've always had as many female friends as male ones. The novels I read as a young man were all by women writers, and when I started writing, I wanted to set my books inside the home.

I can't imagine writing a screenplay where I didn't feel deeply connected at some kind of visceral level to the material.

I'm quite gloomy. I just am one of those people, vaguely lugubrious.