(We received this letter) because somebody wrote down the wrong thing or dropped the paper. According to the school district, they weren't turned in. I'm not paying for these uniforms because I know Patrick turned them in.

We want to get them excited about flying.

If we feel they're mature enough, we may allow them to hold onto the stick.

I don't see how you can avoid the fact that the books are riddled with sadism, racism, sexism. In books, readers tend to skate over all these horrible ambiguities. The moment they're put on film, it's very difficult to duck them.

All the figures show that film-makers and publishers go for the safe option. You go for the safest bottom line and as long as Dahl is selling a lot of books you can't go wrong.

Dahl was a very shrewd cookie. He was an expedient writer who would use anything to make an impact in a book. He saw what worked; his books are full of effects and good scenes. In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , there are fantastic scenes of demolishing this person, getting rid of that person - all very high-powered stuff.