I've always been drawn to spooky things, to the unusual, to things that are dark but in a friendly way.

It's really weird because my house is very ornate, but my writing lair is very, very blank. It's white, the furniture is white. It gives me nothing to look at, so I just have to concentrate!

I don't tend to be a nitpicker when I'm watching movies, so as long as something is true to the spirit of the original, that's very much what we got for. You try to never do something that the original author wouldn't have done themselves.

Japanese horror films take the business of being frightening seriously. There is no attempt at postmodernism or humour. They are incredibly melancholy, with a strong emotional core, while remaining absolutely terrifying.

The things you encounter in your formative years always stay with you.

Always build. If you start at fever pitch, there's nowhere to go.

Establish character - otherwise, it is difficult to connect with what is frightening.

After starting as a journalist for newspapers and magazines, I began to write books and had success with a novel and four nonfiction books for young adults.

A friend of mine, Neil Gaiman, had the film rights to his book 'Stardust' bought by producer Matthew Vaughn and suggested I adapt it for the screen.

'Stardust' ended up being my first film in 2007.

If you're writing a novel, you can afford to see where the spirit takes you, but in terms of structure and engineering with a screenplay, you have to be quite pragmatic; otherwise, it will run away from you.

I've always loved science fiction, fantasy, manga, comic books; so I guess, to some degree, those things influence my personal idea of what looks nice, which definitely isn't everyone else's.

People's intolerance, I find puzzling.

There is always a reverence issue, and I'm no different from any audience member that if someone's adapting a book or comic that I like, I really don't want them to screw it up.

I really enjoy the challenge of adapting.

You want, in a sense, to relate to the main character, so often, the main character POV is a bit more of a blank slate.

I know what I miss as a cinemagoer is that balance of films that actually scare me; they're so few and far between.

Everybody should be free to love and marry who they want.

I've been really lucky not to have a duff experience with a director.

Honestly, I think most directors are about, 'Let's do the most fun and effective thing here and figure out how afterwards.'

I think most of the time you can make something happen, and it's about not letting your imagination be limited by that.

I pretty much always wanted to be a writer.

I was so clear on the fact that I wanted to be a journalist that I asked my parents if I could go to a tutorial college to do my O-levels early, which I did when I was 13.

I love my work, but my home life is so fulfilling that I don't tend to be driven by work ambitions.

I like it when characters respond to things that are outrageous and movie-like in an authentic way.

I was into Alan Moore and Frank Miller. I was a teenager when all those books where coming out for the first time - 'Watchmen,' 'V for Vendetta.' It was a great time to get into comics.

I see my role as a translator, telling the story that's in the book using the more visual language of film.

I like looking at a book and asking myself, 'How do I replicate that experience I just had as a reader?'

The idea that you could make a living from writing always thrilled me.

If you disapprove of violence, then you can't think there is any age when violence is appropriate.

A lot of people use the phrase 'underage violence,' which, to me, is meaningless.