It is better of course to know useless things than to know nothing.

Back in the East you can't do much without the right papers, but with the right papers you can do anything The believe in papers. Papers are power.

Most British playwrights of my generation, as well as younger folks, apparently feel somewhat obliged to Russian literature - and not only those writing for theatres. Russian literature is part of the basic background knowledge for any writer. So there is nothing exceptional in the interest I had towards Russian literature and theatre. Frankly, I couldn't image what a culture would be like without sympathy towards Russian literature and Russia, whether we'd be talking about drama or Djagilev.

The fact is, I loved being English. I was very happy to be turned into an English schoolboy.

My work always tried to unite the true with the beautiful; but when I had to choose one or the other, I usually chose the beautiful.

Nowadays, an artist is someone who makes art mean the things he does.

Writing a play is like smashing that [glass] ashtray, filming it in slow motion, and then running the film in reverse, so that the fragments of rubble appear to fly together. You start - or at least I start - with the rubble.