The extraordinary delegation of authority now existing at Berkshire is the ideal antidote to bureaucracy. In an operating sense, Berkshire is not a giant company but rather a collection of large companies. At headquarters, we have never had a committee nor have we ever required our subsidiaries to submit budgets (though many use them as an important internal tool). We don't have a legal office nor departments that other companies take for granted: human relations, public relations, investor relations, strategy, acquisitions, you name it. We do, of course, have an active audit function; no sense being a damned fool.

Right. And let’s put Michelangelo in quotes, ’cause was he really the one who actually said that? But, anyway, the idea still holds. I feel that whatever I’m writing exists already. Maybe that’s because of a glitch in the space-time continuum and when I write I’m actually putting my living self behind the present moment in time. Like I’m following something through the woods. Eyes open. Ears open. Heart open. And I’m following a path that is sometimes behind me.

As the screenwriter, the majority of my input comes at an earlier stage.

I am being careful not to clutter my life with career administration so I can keep the focus on the acting.

Just circumstance. I was running a small theatre group and somebody didn’t deliver a play.

It was a sustained nervous breakdown really, over a long period.

Every morning, Monday to Friday, I get up at 7am and make my wife breakfast in bed.

Because I loved it when I was young.

As an adolescent, I read Raymond Williams, George Orwell and Simone de Beauvoir – a crash course in human decency.

The End Of The Affair by Graham Greene.