For me, 'The Kite Runner' became about a guy who's emotionally shut down because he hasn't confronted his past.

I think people, unfortunately, do live in constant fear.

The interesting thing is that when you start out, people have no judgment and they see you young and fresh as a filmmaker - and because you have no experience yet, you're much more naive and think anything is possible.

Three days after my brother died, my father was in the hospital. He just did not want to live anymore. Before, he was fighting and loving life.

I haven't written adult fiction, but I do not sugarcoat grief - or what I expect grief to be.

I think in some instances that the death penalty is required.

I look upon death to be as necessary to our constitution as sleep. We shall rise refreshed in the morning.

Shakespeare is one of the last books one should like to give up, perhaps the one just before the Dying Service in a large Prayer book.