“Richelieu is not a villain, in his own mind. He’s doing what he needs to do.”

It’s a great genre because you can do a lot. Sometimes in thrillers, you can really explore things, and it’s the same in this genre.

You have to make that judgement yourself, and that’s partly where the casting director is so good. It was that blend that we were looking for.

And we’re always talking to the directors about that. It’s a big challenge to find people that can do it.

But you need them to also have that sense of fun and that sense of movement and that ability to get the actors to really respond to the material in the way that you want them to. It’s a very big thing.

Being able to do action sounds like it should be straightforward, but it really isn’t.

In the book, D’Artagnan doesn’t actually become an official Musketeer until quite near the end.

There was a lot that I wanted it to do, and I wanted it to be fun. It’s fun, but it’s not simple fun.

I want to make sure people are constantly surprised and interested.

They’re classic themes, which is why I think it’s such a great story to look at again.

It’s not fundamentally different to any other genre, that action is a particular thing.

On a simple level, you need directors who are good at action and can choreograph an action scene

I think there’s an element in Milady where she sees her own innocence in D’Artagnan.

You can use the fun of the genre, but I also really wanted to come at it from the point of view of some really complex characterization.

And we make quite a big thing about that. I won’t give too much away.

One of the problems of this genre is that there are cliches everywhere, and you’ve got to be careful and watch out.

Milady is, in one sense, a villain because she does bad things.

I admire Madonna because she always did whatever she felt like doing. She went through some controversial periods when people rejected her, but she kept on reinventing herself.

I’ve done without doing things, like sleeping and eating, but I need to write.

I’m never content with what I do. I live in a sort of permanent dissatisfaction. I think that’s the secret to doing things well.

This personal freedom to think and feel and speak authentically and to be conscious of so doing is the quality that distinguishes us as human.

I have a sort of empty feeling; nothing in the world seems of sufficient importance to be worth the doing.

I’m eighteen years behind in my ironing. There’s no use doing it now, it doesn’t fit anybody I know.

The one thing that I always try and take with me, if there’s, like, a remake, or you’re doing something again, is that every generation has a new story to tell.

When I’m doing something funny, I wish I was doing something more serious.