Unfortunately, you know, working in a spirit of cooperation and respect requires someone else to reach back, and I don't think that's happened and it's been disappointing because the debate in our country has become so rancorous.

Now, I am completely independent - I earn my living by speaking and writing.

The President has a wonderful sense of humor, which is one of the reasons it is so much fun to work for him.

Well, it really describes what it feels like to be a normal person whose boss and friend suddenly runs for the president, and then becomes the president.

Sometimes I envy people who can be only half crazy, with one foot in the passion and one foot in the real world. But that's not me. I dive into the total crazy experience. That's the only way to travel.

If you are a fan of my BBC series 'Great Continental Railway Journeys,' you'll probably not be surprised to learn that one of my great aspirations is to travel on Egypt's railways.

In true-life dramas, you have to do so much research. It's a big responsibility to make sure things are as correct as possible. In 'Robin Hood', you have more artistic license - it's all action, adventure and reaction. This gives everyone a chance to make their characters their own and to make them believable.

I think, in Japan, animation isn't relegated to being a genre unto itself. It's just a medium by which you can tell any number of stories, be it horror or action or adventure or drama or whatever, and we're trying to do that as well. Every film that you go see from Pixar, we're hoping is a little bit of a surprise.