Anthony Minghella

The problem with growing up in a cafe was the cafe never closed, my parents worked every day of the year from morning to night. So it was a big menagerie of kids, business and cooking!

The only lesson to extract from any civil war is that it's pointless and futile and ugly, and that there is nothing glamorous or heroic about it. There are heroes, but the causes are never heroic.

I was one of five very clever kids, the other kids were cleverer than I was and still are and are very achieving. The girls were always first at everything and I was always 101st!

Being a writer-director can sometimes make you incredibly blinkered.

As a teenager I was obsessed with music and with writing and performing songs.

I had never thought of myself as a director and found out that I was not. I am a writer who was able to direct the films that I write.

The feeling of not belonging, of not being entirely worthy, of being sometimes hostage to your own sensibilities. Those things speak to me very personally.

I always listen to music, my passion and vice is music, I will be denied access to heaven because of the number of CDs I own, and I have gluttony for all types and colours of music.

I have always believed that there is a need for life-affirming films.

My grandmother was a huge influence on me and the fact that there was this very strong, rather formidable presence of women in my life has been an enormous value.

Of course, like all film-makers I've been mesmerised by cinema since I was a child.

You know you lose a lot of social skills if you're a writer. You spend too long alone. And its forced me to address that.