Christopher Hampton

I have always thought of sophistication as rather a feeble substitute for decadence. ”

I love films. If I'd known how to get into or do it from the word go, I would have done that. ”

A great number of the disappointments and mishaps of the troubled world are the direct result of literature and the allied arts. It is our belief that no human being who devotes his life and energy to the manufacture of fantasies can be anything but fundamentally inadequate. ”

It's great to get out of the study and work with real living and breathing people. ”

To seduce a woman famous for strict morals, religious fervor and the happiness of her marriage: what could possibly be more prestigious? ”

You know very well that unless you're a scientist, it's much more important for a theory to be shapely, than for it to be true. ”

If I had to give a definition of capitalism I would say: the process whereby American girls turn into American women. ”

There was a moment in the early '80s when I wanted to work on films and wanted to live in L.A. ”

Since my adaptation of Ian McEwan's 'Atonement,' I get sent a lot of novels that people think will work as movies. So every now and then I make a point of sitting down and reading a couple of them. ”