Tension is all about, 'Why is this taking so long?' The interesting thing about that is that it's also the tension of comedy. The tension of drama and comedy is similar, and that's why usually you can get a big laugh in a really tense moment because people need that release.

Obviously, when you do something with drama and comedy in it - and by that, I mean a scene that has drama and comedy in it - you know the minute you introduce music, you're either scoring the drama or you're scoring the comedy, and therefore the scene becomes either dramatic or comedic.

Having written for film and television, I had little interest in turning 'The Good Father' into a Hollywood thriller. I was writing a novel, and novels demand that the writer goes deeper, both emotionally and thematically.

What success has done is present me with a lot of opportunities, and I haven't necessarily learned to say 'no' as well as I should have.

If there's one thing that television doesn't really do, and has never really done, is to tell a surreal story.

I try to approach the film medium as a novelist and the novel medium as a filmmaker on some level. It's that question: Do we think in pictures, or do we think in language? And the novelist believes one thing, and the filmmaker believes another thing - and I'm fascinated by that balance.

Bringing back stamp collecting and bringing back bridge seems like a pretty good way to fight the modern world.

I'm a big believer that the structure of stories should reflect the content of the story.

In 'The X-Men' world, one can be a hero one day and a villain the next, which means there's a constant battle for a character's soul that's dynamic. I find that really fascinating.

One of the things I love about Joel and Ethan Coen's movies is that there is this element of the ethereal and the mythic that they play with.

I'm on a lot of airplanes. There are definitely times when I just vapor-lock. I'm on the plane, and I have so much to do, I just don't know what to do. It never lasts for very long. It might last for the flight.

People, they don't know how to bend; they just break.

What makes something tragic is that it could've been averted at multiple points.

The last thing you want is to be desperate in Hollywood.

TV is all about learning to write in someone else's voice, so if you do it long enough without selling your own project, they assume you don't have your own voice; you're just a good mimic.

'Legion' is meant to be a show that is a state of mind. But the problem with TV is that there are commercials. There's a hypnotic quality to the way we put it together. I need to get you out of your life in the first seven minutes of that show.

The job at broadcast is to figure out what the dumbest person in the room is going to think. That's not the case at FX.

I am a salesman, I am an executive, I look at budgets, I think about power politics, but then I am also a creative person.

The best strategy for making people care about what happens is if they empathize with both sides. If you just have a Villain with a capital V, it becomes very two-dimensional.

What's great is that each medium has a unique set of things that it does and does well. Film is a visual medium, and obviously, you can't fit a whole book into two hours unless you're really economical about it. Obviously, they say a picture is worth a thousand words, and on some level, it's sort of true.

I see myself as a first-draft writer, so when I sit down to write something, the first draft is usually pretty close to the end draft.

A novel is a relationship, you know? When you read a book, the writer has done half the work, and you're doing half the work. You're providing the imagination; the words are turning into pictures in your mind. There's an active relationship that's going on.

My goal is always to make something unpredictable that feels inevitable in the end. It's getting harder to do that. Audiences are so sophisticated and so smart.

My mom never went to college, so she just assumed the writer identity, and that was always really inspiring to me. It's not something you need nine levels of education for. It's really an identity that you claim for yourself, and then you have to make yourself one.

There's this common sense idea that in order to appeal to the biggest number of people, you have to write something very general, but my experience is the more specific you make something, the more people respond to it, in a very odd way.

We tried our damnedest to make it a special entertainment, but I'll admit I'm a contributor to the decline in TV standards.

If I was prime minister for a day the first thing I would do would be to close the border. Then we could work out how many people we've got here. Then you get people out who have committed crimes and you look at others who shouldn't be here. Nobody knows how many people we've got here.

There are too many organisations - and the BBC is a fabulous organisation - that seem to think it's OK to badger, hector and threaten people.

I worked for the BBC for 30 years.

Reality shows have caused fatigue amongst the public.

We've sussed that we've paid all this money to watch ourselves entertain ourselves. We have more members of the public on TV than on C&A's CCTV.

Belief and trust in the power of the Cosmos gives even the most chaotic life a new sense of order and purpose.

I spent a lot of Saturday night on BBC television, being chased around by yellow rubber balls.

I'm the last person to claim that I'm sane.

You don't do everything in life in order to make money.

Believe it or not, I'm actually quite a private person.

What's the point of life if we can't be positive, have fun and make the world a better place?

I always have a giggle.

Water can communicate. It's communicating with us, it's communicating with other water.

We must never forget that the cosmos exists solely to help those who want to help themselves. It is an incredibly powerful force and a wonderful friend for all who adopt a positive approach to life.

I am not living in the past.

I don't really like those houses where someone's put up all their old football trophies and whatever; you know, what are they trying to prove?

Contrary to the image of a neurotic man created in some quarters, I feel very much at peace with myself.

I'm very good at compartmentalising my life. I did motor-racing for a while, stopped, didn't miss it. I did power-boat racing for a while, stopped, didn't miss it. I had such a good run at the BBC. I had a hell of a CV with arguably the greatest broadcasting organisation in the world. But I've never missed it since.

If I'm demanding and have high standards, I'm happy about that.

I quite often carry a little card with me and I write things on the card - things that I'm grateful for and things that I would like to positively happen around today.

I used to be very frightened of failure.

I'm very sensitive to criticism, particularly when it's very, very personal.

Our politicians want to keep us in a negative state because they can easily manipulate us.

If people think I am a failure because I am not on telly every day, that is their problem.