When I write, I am not giving a lecture, I am speculating on behavior. Sometimes this is dangerous, but it should be. As I say often, theatre is a dark place and we should keep the light out of it.

I never 'say' anything in my work. I invent a world. Let others decide what is being 'said'.

We are suffocated by writers who want to enlighten us with their truths. For me, the theatre is beautiful because it is a secret, and secrets seduce us, we all want to share secrets.

Theatre should be a taxing experience: the greatest achievement of a writer is to produce a character who creates anxiety.

I don't like sympathetic characters.

I'm not interested in observed reality.

I submit all my plays to the National Theatre for rejection. To assure myself I am seeing clearly.

The artist who makes himself accessible is self-destructive.

I have plenty of political views and plenty of social and personal prejudices. I do not, however, value them.

A good play puts the audience through a certain ordeal.

I'm not interested in entertainment.

A few minutes later, my eyes began to feel a bit droopy, but I vaguely noticed that Anissa was whispering something.

[M]an has as much liberty as he is willing to take.

There's never really been a real hood Christmas movie.

In virtually every Western society in the 1960s there was a moral revolution, an abandonment of its entire traditional ethic of self-restraint.

I don't want my poems to be sentimental, though I do acknowledge that sentiment is probably rather under-reported in a lot of people's feelings a lot of the time.

I attend surprisingly few shows. The type of theater that is popular today just doesn't appeal to me.

Whatever must happen ultimately should happen immediately.

My fighting spirit has often seemed out of place.

Jenna.” Brock stroked the underside of her chin very gently, lifting her face up toward his. “Would it be all right if I kissed you?

I've never felt like I was born with a silver spoon at all, although I've felt like howling at the moon a lot of times!