The 16th-century theatre witnessed the particularly English manifestation of 'the history play.' There can be no doubt that Shakespeare's presentations of 'Henry V' and 'Richard III' have been incalculably more influential than any more sober historical study.

The best years are when you know what you're doing.

The ordinary routines of life are never chronicled by the historian, but they make up almost the whole of experience.

Every book for me is a chapter in the long book which will finally be closed on the day of my death.

Yet, like the sea and the gallows, London refuses nobody.

It's only recently that we've discovered that the artist's inner self is somehow more important than the public world. I'm happier to create exterior pieces for the world rather than to express something I deeply feel or wish to say.

As a Londoner I was able to see how the world of power and money cast its shadow on those who failed.