A few years ago, there were requests to me, Can we make this? I said that I have no rights. Contact the Hitchcock estate, which won't release it for a remake.

I was in New York. Hitchcock was in California. He rang me to make a report on his progress and said, I'm having trouble. I've just sacked my second screenwriter.

I didn't hang around films. I don't know if I'd ever seen Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes.

She thought of people she had seen holding hands in movies, and why shouldn't she and Carol?

Some fellow from the Third World kept hammering for prizes for a Communist film which was rotten.

That wasn't a bad price for a first book. My agent upped it as much as possible. I was 27 and had nothing behind me. I was working like a fool to earn a living and pay for my apartment.