One reads for pleasure...it is not a public duty.

History is a commentary on the various and continuing incapabilities of men. What is history? History is women following behind with the bucket.

The days weren't long enough for the reading she wanted to do.

Art comes out of art; it begins with imitation, often in the form of parody, and it's in the process of imitating the voice of others that one comes to learn the sound of one's own.

The appeal of reading, she thought, lay in its indifference: there was something undeferring about literature. Books did not care who was reading them or whether one read them or not. All readers were equal, herself included. Literature, she thought, is a commonwealth; letters a republic.

I've never forgotten that experience. But I had nobody at school that was either like Hector or Irwin. The masters had no idea what was expected of you in the scholarship exam, so you just had to busk it really.

I write plays about things that I can't resolve in my mind. I try to root things out.