“I kind of stumbled on the material for 'An Education' and thought it would make a good movie, and one of the things that came out of that, for me, was that I learned that if you write a big part for a girl or a young woman, you get the opportunity to work with the best talent in the world.”

British novelist and essayist, 1957–present. He blends sharp social observation with humor in works like *Fever Pitch*, a memoir about football fandom, and *High Fidelity*, a novel exploring music, relationships, and regret. His writing often captures the mundane and the emotional with wit and honesty.