As a writer you're holding a dog. You let the dog run about. But you finally can pull him back. Finally, I'm in control. But the great excitement is to see what happens if you let the whole thing go. And the dog or the character really runs about, bites everyone in sight, jumps up trees, falls into lakes, gets wet, and you let that happen. That's the excitement of writing plays-to allow the thing to be free but still hold the final leash.

When you lead a life of scholarship you can't be bothered with the humorous realities, you know, tits, that kind of thing.

Most of the press is in league with government, or with the status quo.

Iraq is just a symbol of the attitude of western democracies to the rest of the world.

I know the place. It is true. Everything we do Corrects the space Between death and me And you.

Clinton's hands remain incredibly clean, don't they, and Tony Blair's smile remains as wide as ever. I view these guises with profound contempt.

My second play, The Birthday Party, I wrote in 1958 - or 1957. It was totally destroyed by the critics of the day, who called it an absolute load of rubbish.