Anthony took me on an adventure when he made The English Patient into a film, but the best part of all that was the friendship we made while preparing for the adventure, and then the friendship that continued after the adventure was played out.

Since then, we have always tried out our own projects on each other. These were often in the early stages, so there were many close readings and arguments about film scripts, novels, books of poetry, as well as projects that were considered and eventually abandoned.

He was a great talker, so you had to be on your toes. He could persuade anything out of the trees. Once or twice a year we would meet up and talk ourselves out. It might have been just one long evening's conversation but later it felt as though we had spent a week together. No small talk with Ant. He went to the core.

I remember two moments after the chaos of the Academy Awards ceremony. One was Anthony saying, "Look what I have in my pocket," as he pulled from his tuxedo a giant horse-shoe that had been given to him by Sydney Pollack. Pollack, who was a great mentor for Anthony during and after the filming of The English Patient, had lugged the same horseshoe to the Oscars when he won for Out of Africa. The other moment was Joel Coen, of the Coen Brothers, who was up for Fargo that year, saying to me philosophically, "Well, this was Anthony's year"; saying it in the sweetest, most Buddhist and un-Hollywood-like way.

I am so glad Anthony had his year, though he was so vast with ideas and projects and talent to burn, that I see all that has happened in the last few days as nothing but loss and unfairness. There was an astounding generosity in him towards young poets and novelists and film-makers as well as to more established artists. So many scripts in these last few years had his uncredited hand on them. He was truthful with his peers and never smug about what he was making or what he had done.

He was certainly the smartest friend I knew. I loved most of all his awareness, his curiosity and his democracy towards all the arts. So many have written to me about him during these last two days - that he was a pillar for them, that he was a light that brought us all together. He was the dearest of friends.