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.

It's politely assumed that democracy is a means of containing and restraining violence. But violence comes not from genes but from ideas

I write plays not to make money, but to stop myself from going mad. Because it's my way of making the world rational to me.

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

The human mind is a dramatic structure in itself and our society is absolutely saturated with drama

If you engage people on a vital, important level, they will respond.

Fifteen years ago I walked out of a production of one of my plays at the RSC because I decided it was a waste of time.