I’m not good at standing on platforms and persuading people to my political point of view. Nor would I seek to. My gift is completely different. It’s for presenting an imaginative version of the world which I hope people would recognize and be affected by.

As Michael Cunningham would later write in his novel The Hours, I thought what I was feeling was the beginning of happiness. In fact, it was happiness.

Insofar as I’m good at directing, it’s because I’ve become a writer.

For a politician, the mans to power is paramount, and the ideology, in a way, can look after itself; I’m afraid a writer can’t think like that. A writer has to think that it’s more important to be right than to be popular.

No single move traps the king.

You make love like a wounded panther. You are like a paintshop on fire.

I don’t see the theater as an establishment. The National Theatre has always seemed to me a people’s theater. It was never meant to reinforce the values of the government of the day, nor does it, nor should it.

It’s inevitable that you will die, so the only question is when. The great thrillers are the moments that play and tease with the question, “When will it be?”

If you like judging, please: be a lawyer. Run a dog show. There’s a whole lot of jobs if judging is your passion in life. But take my advice: if you want to be happy, keep your judging professional. And don’t start putting in practice at home.

As you write plays, you discover what you believe. And until you know what you believe, you can’t write a play.