And that’s a fine balance. It’s something I’ve really struggled with: slowing down and letting go of that urgent feeling of creative energy that’s bubbling up within me at all times; this urge I have to create, this endless urge. When I let go of that, it’s almost like a form of peace washes over me, where I’m so much more relaxed and at ease with whatever project it is I’m doing. If you become too all-consumed by a project, it becomes hard to actually see beyond that.

Anyone can talk. Anyone can write. It takes discipline and rigor

One day you write nothing, the next you write eight pages. It’s not in your hands.

I think so. I really do. With your own effort, you can improve yourself, but people find they can’t improve beyond a certain point. I like to play golf, but I know that no matter how much I practice, I will never get above a certain level. I think that’s also true of surgery. Some people are born with the gifts and the mind for surgery, and they may go on to great heights. Others may try and try, only to reach a certain plateau.

Choosing parts is based on a series of instincts and hunches

But if I’ve come up with any kind of mantra for myself it’s to try and put myself into a state of imaginative play.

A painting of the late actor Bille Brown by Australian artist Ben Quilty, to commemorate decades of fraternal and professional bonds.

It’s not sudden.

Yielding to the wrong sort of melancholia.

My own snoring.