I… I was delivered daily, or possibly it was weekly – I forget now – into Stanley's clutches and we would go through the motions of writing… of writing this screenplay. It was rather hard to work with Stanley – he… he wouldn't take yes for an answer. So… it was very difficult to put a proposition to him. He didn't readily listen to other people's propositions.
And this little boy, we established rather early, if this little boy drank water, then it would gum up his interior and he wouldn't be able to function. So that was going to be a kind of plot device that we might or might not use to get rid of the little boy.
I worked with him... I can't think for how long... but for a long time. And did I enjoy it? Well, my wife said to me, 'Why are you putting yourself through this?' And my response was, 'Well, I've always wanted to work with a genius'. But, I think that Kubrick certainly was a genius or had been a genius and had created some quite extraordinary movies, not least 2001. But by now, I think he wasn't too well, or was in decay. So, eventually, he turned to me and said, 'Brian, this isn't working. Alright, we're finished...' or whatever he said, and he then turned his back on me. Well, fuck that. I thought that was just plain rude, and so I left.
But that wasn't the end of his troubles. It may have been the end of mine, but it wasn't the end of his troubles.