He`s very concealed, Polanski. We became very close friends, but I don`t think I ever saw him drop his guard. I didn`t see him upset or anything like that, we just did the work.

I mean he`s a very famous director... they`re not going to put their... and he`s very tough, he doesn`t like interference at all, so he kept them at bay.

No, I can`t write treatments, I think there`s a danger with treatments. That you... you write out your first excitement and enthusiasm in a prose treatment.

I went straight in. Fade in, one... whatever. He`s playing the piano in the radio station.

God, that`s a good question. And it`s a dangerous thing for people like me to romanticise. I`ve never written an actual war story.

Well we took it apart scene by scene. We examined every sentence, every full stop, every comma. He has a most wonderful eye for detail, Roman, and you know, he`s a very good artist.

Easier to climb up, than to just hang on.

It`s a terrific... you can`t put it down. So I phoned him back and I said I`d love to do it. I went over to Paris for a meeting, and we just talked very generally about the approach.