"I was set free because my greatest fear had been realized, and I still had a daughter who I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life."

"Why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me."

"Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the fates."

"I do get recognized, but I must say Edinburgh is a fantastic city to live if you're well-known. There is an innate respect for privacy in Edinburgh people, and I also think they're used to seeing me walking around, so I don't think I'm a very big deal."

"In the depths of adversity, the legacy we leave is written in the hearts of others."

"There is no such thing as talent. There is pressure."

"The biggest guru-mantra is: never share your secrets with anybody. It will destroy you."

"I've made movies that we're very successful that we're a complete surprise, and I've made movies that I thought we're going to be very successful that, you know."