Ol Parker

“I wanted to write about love at first sight because I fell in love at first sight.”

“Thandie has no interest in race. She thinks it's just a Freudian concept by definition, and there's more genetic difference between a Kenyan and a Ugandan than there is between a Kenyan and a Norwegian... she believes entirely that nationality is nothing but accident.”

“The structure and formula are now so well-known that it's become very hard for the film-maker not to commit the cardinal sin: letting the audience get ahead of the film. So it takes some real sparkle - of which I thought 'Man Up' had plenty, especially in the writing - to keep the viewer enjoying a by-now predictable journey.”

“Richard Curtis has an encyclopedic knowledge of ABBA, which defeats even mine.”

“I hired people who would help me, you know, like a director of photography who wouldn't blind me with jargon about ratios and pull-downs.”

“There is a scene that I wrote with the line, 'It's a terrible day when a man's daughter brings a boy home for the first time.' I'll never be ready for it, I would like to stop my children growing, I don't know how to handle it.”

“'Dancing Queen' was the hardest to pull off, all those boats and all those people dancing around the street with boats coming around the corner.”

“You can't let movies get in the way of your life.”

“I guess if you try to write with honesty and emotional truth, then that will resonate no matter what the age of the viewer.”

“Meryl's Donna embodied the spirit of ABBA and 'Mamma Mia!' in the first film.”

“I wrote the 'Marigold Hotel' series and with the first one, people hated it in the U.K. but in America they really liked it.”

“I have no goals or ambitions whatsoever.”

“I wrote a film for Tom Hanks and I wrote two films for Paul Greengrass that didn't actually happen. The paradox is that the bigger the film you write, the less likely it is to happen.”

“It's the easiest thing in the world, when you're 80, to not go to India to make a movie.”

“I have two girls and one is now nearly a teenager - it is terrifying.”

“I mean, movies need distraction.”

“The primary relationship on a film, where possible, should be between the director and writer.”

“And Cher, obviously, can never do anything other than go for it. She's all in.”

“The other night my daughter shouted: 'What's that flying out of the window? It's the rules!' So that's how we roll.”

“I wouldn't make the film that was an hour and half progression from sadness to despair. I'm hugely optimistic.”