27 Quotes by Mike Bartlett

I don't tend to write articles and blogs because, I think, if you went into the theatre knowing that this is the writer's view on x, y, and z, it's just game over for the play.

When I got to university, I would read plays and go, 'But these are about the past. Where are the plays that I love about now?' I couldn't find them, so I started writing.

You go to a protest, and you've got all these different groups saying things you don't necessarily agree with. If I went to a protest, my placard would have to be very long, explaining the ins and outs of my position.

I wrote a very bad play about Prince William when I was 23 in which he went off to the island of Iona to discover himself. It was very long, and audiences should probably be very pleased that the computer it was on blew up.

When I can find a story that explores something that I don't know what I think, I've got a play. If I knew the answer, I would write a speech or an essay.

What I've found is if you get the right characters in the right story and put them in the right setting - and let them go - they tend to do all the exploring of the issues for you. Because people are interesting and political and funny and sad.

That's the moment you look for as a writer, when the characters start telling you what they are doing rather than you telling them.

In Britain, many people love the royal family, and other people don't - but either way, we own them, and we have an opinion, and we know a lot about them. It's as though they're our own family.

When I was nine, I found a copy of 'Doctor Who: the Making of a Television Series' in the school library. It had a picture of Peter Davison on the front, and it was a formative book for me. It explained all the different departments like the script, cameras, and sets and explained how a television show is put together.