No, I just thought of a story and wrote down what I saw. It was about two kids in Ireland who went around killing people. It was called Travelers, and it was made as an independent film.

The Company of Wolves doesn't belong in any category, so it's difficult to prepare an audience for it. It's not a horror film, it's not a fantasy film, it's not a children's film - so what is it?

The Company of Wolves is about how society teaches young women to look at themselves, and what to be afraid of. It's about a girl learning that the world of sensuality and the unknown is not to be feared, that it's worth getting your teeth into.

The most difficult thing is the organization of people and the expression of your intentions. It's very easy to have a picture in your head and to imagine that you've told everybody about what you need.

Well, if you're talking about the current climate, there's a lack of content in American film because I think people are deeply confused about their emotions, and they don't regret certain aspects of their own foreign policy.

When you've written a movie, you then get together with a whole lot of people and make it. In many ways, I think it is far nicer to be with people rather than being completely solitary.

Why should a horror film be just a horror film? To me, The Company of Wolves is a fairy tale; it's got all those elements plus a lot more. And we know that fairy tales aren't innocent any more.

And I think I often choose to do something because it's quite different from what I've done before.

Films have gotten leaner and leaner, cutting out all variations from the story line.

For me, the filmmaking has to be about the dramaturgy.

I can't do a film if I don't start with the writing.

I do enjoy working with writers.

I took two years away from making films to write a novel.

I'm less comfortable making American movies because I don't know them so well.

It is extremely difficult to get movies that cost more than $40 million to be made these days.

It's the same thing in a way, although writing a book is a very solitary thing.

Never make a promise - you may have to keep it.

The End of the Affair is almost like a play.

There's no point in making a film out of a great book. The book's already great. What's the point?

Well, Company of Wolves was about that literally, about fairy tales.