Books are not about passing the time. They're about other lives. Other worlds.

Of course my standards are out of date! That's why they're called standards.

Mark my words, when a society has to resort to the lavatory for its humour, the writing is on the wall.

Life is rather like a tin of sardines - we're all of us looking for the key.

I think the writer's quite low down in the hierarchy really. But the fact that they took the piss out of Nicholas [Hynter] who, besides being the director, is also director of the National Theatre is, I'd have thought, slightly more risky.

I had no idea of who could play it, no notion really. Then Richard came to see us but I don't think it was decided at that meeting. The trouble is, as soon as you've chosen somebody it obscures anybody else you might have thought of. It's like going to a place that you've never been to before - you've got a picture of it and then you go there and that picture is totally wiped out by the reality.

f they'd been working with Alec Guinness, for instance, they wouldn't have known they were born if they'd not towed the line!