The writer in movies is about as low as you can get and you really are a hired hand. You are paid a lot of money to be treated like dirt.

- Andrew Davies

I'm absolutely delighted if people think of me as a reliable purveyor of quality period stuff.

- Andrew Davies

My wife likes history and documentaries, but I'm not so keen on them. I generally go and do some work if there's one of those on.

- Andrew Davies

People in the BBC are always dying to get out of their open-plan offices.

- Andrew Davies

People like bonnets. I don't think you can under-estimate that.

- Andrew Davies

Plan for each episode to be a satisfying experience, but still leave the audience thinking, 'Oh, my God! Now what?'

- Andrew Davies

Rebecca Eaton has made an enormous contribution to the cultural life of America, and, more than that, she is one of the most fun people I know.

- Andrew Davies

Taking the humour out of Dickens, it's not Dickens any more.

- Andrew Davies

The BBC fulfils a wonderful cultural function. Maybe the problem is that it feels it needs to be everything to everybody.

- Andrew Davies

I would love it if anyone gave me the job of adapting 'The Great Gatsby,' but nobody ever does.

- Andrew Davies

When you see two writers named on a movie, one of them did some drafts and got the boot.

- Andrew Davies

An adaptation I was working on of Trollope's 'The Pallisers' has been axed by the BBC... I was also going to do Dickens' 'Dombey and Son' but they've asked me to do 'David Copperfield' instead.

- Andrew Davies

I got quite cross when I heard about Emma Thompson adapting 'Sense and Sensibility.' It was absolutely childish of me, but I thought, 'I should be doing that. They didn't even ask me.' Some mistake, surely.

- Andrew Davies

I had a mother who was very emotionally demanding, wanting to be the centre of attention. As they say in EastEnders, she thought it was all about 'er. I spent a lot of time trying to work out what was going on.

- Andrew Davies

I'd love to adapt more contemporary novels. But there isn't really enough story and character to make a really satisfying serial, so they tend to be single dramas.

- Andrew Davies

I'm glad nobody has asked me to adapt 'Wuthering Heights' because I think I would make a mess of it. Everybody makes a mess of it. I think the Bronte Sisters are mad.

- Andrew Davies

I'm not one of these people who say how much better American drama is than English. I find it mostly too American, except for The Sopranos, which I think is the best thing.

- Andrew Davies

Most actors hate readthroughs - they're exposing themselves before they're ready to, and before they've bonded. But I love them because they give us all the first inkling of what the whole show is going to be like, how each part affects every other part, and we won't see that again until it's all edited together.

- Andrew Davies

Look at Jane Austen. Her characters derive in a reasonably straight line from fairy tales.

- Andrew Davies

I used to have this Mercedes, a dark blue 450SLC, which was the most beautiful car. I'd like to have another unusual, beautiful car.

- Andrew Davies