If you're growing up in a chaotic world without reason, your instinct is to become a performer and control the circumstances around you. You lead from weakness into strength; you have an undefended back.

I've always had difficulties with female characters.

When I was 16 or 17, anyone could have had me if they sang the right song and recruited me in the right way. Which is why I've always had a sneaking understanding for people who took the wrong route. That doesn't mean to say I took it or even contemplated it myself.

I wrote 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' at the age of 30 under intense, unshared personal stress and in extreme privacy. As an intelligence officer in the guise of a junior diplomat at the British Embassy in Bonn, I was a secret to my colleagues, and much of the time to myself.

I keep my head straight by having the right people around me, from my friends and family to my management and my team. They all keep me in my place. If I didn't have them supporting all the work that I do, I wouldn't be in such a solid place.

My brother and I had a real love-hate relationship with my success. There was some bitterness there that I didn't understand until recently, but I told him that if I ever did a record I wanted him to play on it.

Romantic love is painful.

OK, I love 'The King and I.' I'm a huge Yul Brynner fan. I love the scene where they danced after the big banquet; that's one of my favorite scenes in a movie of all time. It's romantic and sweet and wonderful.