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.

In London, I've always lived within 10 miles of where I was born. You see, there is something called a spirit of place, and my place happens to be London, at least once a fortnight.

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

I detest self-regard. If my work has taught me anything, it is that self-aggrandisement is completely unhistorical.

I wanted to be a poet when I was 20; I had no interest in fiction or biography and precious little interest in history, but those three elements in my life have become the most important.

I never read in bed, only in my study.

To watch King Lear is to approach the recognition that there is indeed no meaning in life, and that there are limits to human understanding.