When we ask bureaucrats to identify who is responsible for fixing anything, they reassure us that there are 'procedures in place.'

I would love to have faith. When you take God out of the universe, there is no-one taking care us - we are just parcels of meat, collections of atoms - we have a little flowering on Earth, and then we're gone.

Art is head space that is very exclusive: it shuts people out; other people cease to exist.

I think I have written the things I was put on Earth to write.

I think it's part of your mental health to let go of things. I think if you would have it all right there, it would be a little overwhelming. I don't know how you'd have a relationship. When you have a relationship, don't two people collude to kind of forget certain things?

I have a group of four or five friends that I consider my friends and best friends and people that I want to hold onto for the rest of my life.

If the chemistry is right between star and photographer and the geometry of the pictures pleases the star, often the two people end up with a long-term professional friendship during which they continue to work together and to produce highly personal images.

One of the trickiest things about 'Game of Thrones' is just seeding those first couple of episodes with that basic information that people need to know, both about the world and the ground rules of the world, and the relationships between the characters, as far as who means what to whom and why.