I write about violence as naturally as Jane Austen wrote about manners. Violence shapes and obsesses our society, and if we do not stop being violent we have no future.

The truth has got to appear plausible on the stage

It seems to me that we are profoundly ignorant of ourselves

All you now do is pursue your private objectives within society. Instead of us being a community, everybody is asked to seek their own personal ends. It's called competition. And competition is antagonism.

In the past goodness was always a collective experience. Then goodness became privatised.

Violence is never a solution in my plays, just as ultimately violence is never a solution in human affairs.

Now, drama is quite useful at helping us to understand what our position is and, conversely, we might then understand why our theatre is being destroyed