Quote: Privacy Again

Mortensen shrugs his rather slender shoulders and stares at me with the kind of intensity top directors pay handsomely for, as he explains his strategy for dealing with such intrusions. “If I keep moving down the street, it’s fine,” he says. “But if I’m looking at paintings or I’m at a photography exhibition, somebody is going to tug my sleeve. Or if I’m having a conversation in a bar, then I am going to be interrupted several times. I know people mean well, but they don’t realise how that can blow your train of thought. What I’ve learnt to do is to say, ‘Not now’, and you feel guilty about it and they go ‘But I just want...’ and you say ‘NOT NOW!’”

TimesOnline: The Outsider: