Patrick Marber

“Well, you just know, as a writer, I didn't really write one of the five best screenplays of the year. There were lots of brilliant screenplays; I was just one of the lucky ones who got nominated.”

“I have made a decision that in future, I will only take on movies that have a better than 75 per cent chance of being made, and that's not easy.”

“I'm a happily married man and I think to get married you have to be optimistic.”

“I think writing is a glorious and noble thing.”

“When I'm on a train and see an empty pitch, it gives me a certain pleasure that I can't quite describe. It's to do with potential.”

“Men want a girl who looks like a boy. They want to protect her but she must be a survivor. And she must come...like a train...but with...elegance.”

“Most of what I write is comedy.”

“I'm constantly having to be vigilant with a depressive tendency, an addictive tendency.”

“But I'm the sort of person who, if certain structures topple, it could all go horribly wrong.”