Editing is a lot about patience and discipline and just banging away at something, turning off the machine and going home at night because you're fru… - Thelma Schoonmaker

You get to contribute so significantly in the editing room because you shape the movie and the performances," she says. "You help the director bring all the hard work of those who made the film to fruition. You give their work rhythm and pace and sometimes adjust the structure to make the film work – to make it start to flow up there on the screen. And then it's very rewarding after a year's work to see people react to what you've done in the theater.

When you're a film-maker you become addicted, your family suffers, your friends suffer, to say nothing of what's going on on the set. It's an incredible way to show the impulse to view. Directors are constantly looking.

Ah, but they aren't violent until I've edited them.