It's upsetting to be a man in our society.

Every reiteration of the idea that nothing matters debases the human spirit.

Let the cut tell the story. Otherwise you have not got dramatic action, you've got narration.

Art and mass entertainment and propaganda, they can all be plotted on the same graph, but there is a difference.

Here's what happens in a play. You get involved in a situation where something is unbalanced. If nothing's unbalanced, there's no reason to have a play. If Hamlet comes home from school, and his dad's not dead and asks him if he's had a good time, it's boring. But if something's unbalanced, it must be returned to order.

Forget narrative, backstory, characterisation, exposition, all of that. Just make the audience want to know what happens next.

I used to think I'd like to be a fireman - in fact, I still would - and the only drawback I could see was coming back to the firehouse, after a day of fighting fires, and still having to put in an eight-hour day writing.