We must be born with an intuition of mortality. Before we know the word for it. Before we know that there are words. Out we come, bloodied and squalling, with the knowledge that for all the points of the compass, there's only one direction. And time is its only measure.

We're better at predicting events at the edge of the galaxy or inside the nucleus of an atom than whether it'll rain on auntie's garden party three Sundays from now.

I never had any frustration about writing uncredited. I always felt that the satisfaction of doing it was in the doing of it, really, and getting recognised by the small number of people that know what you did.

Fatherlessness didn't strike me as being an event. It was a state of life.

I was so thrilled being a reporter, because it gave you the kind of access to people that you wouldn't ever get to meet.

I write out of my intellectual experience.

You can't but know that if you can capture the emotions of the audience as well as their minds, the play will work better, because it's a narrative art form.