We’ve got ninety-nine per cent the same genes as any other person. We’ve got ninety per cent the same as a chimpanzee. We’ve got thirty per cent the same as a lettuce. Does that cheer you up at all? I love about the lettuce. It makes me feel I belong.

There's nothing personal in it [THE SKRIKER]. I'm not ever inclined with any of the plays to say, This is about that, because plays are about the whole event that they are. . . . I was certainly wanting to write a play about damage - damage to nature and damage to people, both of which there's plenty of about. To that extent, I was writing a play about England now.

Painting doesn't mean just describing; it's a state of spirit.

Parties are a cruel kind of fun.

You can't win every week.

You're pretending this isn't your life. You think it's going to happen some other time. When you're dead you'll realise you were alive now.

What's poetry? It's not real but maybe it's more than real. It's dreaming while you're awake.