If I have enough ego to say I'm a writer a director a producer and an actor I should have the energy and the knowledge to write a scene for this great actor named Henry Fonda and direct him in it and have it work.

As a young man I went to Paris and soaked up many hours of film knowledge from Robert Hakim in my efforts to become a producer.

Since we launched the original 'Pop Idol' in England I've remained close with Simon Fuller. Working as executive producer on 'American idol' for its first seven years not only was an inspirational journey into the heart of American pop culture it opened my eyes to the untapped potential of the incredibly dynamic young people in this world.

As an actor I think sometimes producers need a little bit of encouragement to see you in a particular role they may not have as much imagination as you would expect.

If my accent betrayed my foreign birth it also stamped me as an enemy in the imagination of the producers.

Chemistry is not anything an executive producer or writer can orchestrate or plan you just hope for it.

He's a good tough producer yes. But I don't think that he's unreasonable unless he feels threatened. And when somebody's in your home I think everybody in the home gets threatened.

In the old days... it was a basic cardinal fact that producers didn't have opinions. When I was producing natural history programmes I didn't use them as vehicles for my own opinion. They were factual programmes.

One of my producers said this business is like a hamster on that little wheel thing that goes around and around. You may have a great day and get great ratings but then you've got another show to do - whatever moment of success or happiness you have you've got to keep grinding it out for the next day.

I've been watching more American TV because of all the great TV series that have come out in the last five to 10 years. I'm a 'Sopranos' fan I'm a 'Wire' fan I'm a 'Mad Men' fan. I'm a 'Deadwood' fan. It makes me optimistic for the future of storytelling on TV that producers are willing to take that kind of jump.

It's funny because '1600 Penn' was the first time I really started to read the reviews because I am an executive producer and I wanted to see what people were enjoying and not enjoying as a means to an end right?

I've never let producers tell me what to do. Even when I was making television I always did what I wanted to do and if I couldn't I didn't do it. It was a freedom that these days young directors starting out don't have.

Food was always a big part of my life. My grandfather was one of 14 kids and his parents had a pasta factory so as a kid he and his siblings would sell pasta door to door. After he became a movie producer he opened up De Laurentiis Food Stores - one in Los Angeles and one in New York.

Animals that we eat are raised for food in the most economical way possible and the serious food producers do it in the most humane way possible. I think anyone who is a carnivore needs to understand that meat does not originally come in these neat little packages.

I have come close to producing films. But generally by the time they hit the screen there's about 50 people with producer credits so what's the point. I usually find scripts I like with no money attached and take them to producers that I know and try to raise finance.

We were delighted to have Nigel as a producer. The only problem is that Nigel is so famous that he seems to dominate most interviews without being there.

He makes me laugh Mick! He tended to turn up when we were having lunch and entertain us all. He bought an Enigma machine! I've never worked with a producer who was more famous than everyone put together.