Christopher hampton

There was a moment in the early '80s when I wanted to work on films and wanted to live in L.A.

I think there's something degrading about having a husband for a rival. It's humiliating if you fail and commonplace if you succeed.

Often I think the novels I read won't make very good movies - I better not say which I'm looking at for potential films! - but it's nice to have an excuse to just sit and read for a whole day.

I like L.A., but I think what's changed is that the kinds of films I do, the mid-range dramatic film, has become an endangered species.

I love films. If I'd known how to get into or do it from the word go, I would have done that.

It's great to get out of the study and work with real living and breathing people.

I find I have to give myself a day when I just shut myself off and do nothing but read.

There is a sort of theory that you should adapt bad books because they always make more successful films.

If I had to give a definition of capitalism I would say: the process whereby American girls turn into American women.

I have always thought of sophistication as rather a feeble substitute for decadence.