I write for film or, in this case, television when I haven't got a play cooking.

Give us this day our daily mask.

Words are sacred. If you get the right ones in the right order you can nudge the world a little.

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.

There we were - demented children mincing about in clothes that no one ever wore, speaking as no man ever spoke, swearing love in wigs and rhymed couplets, killing each other with wooden swords, hollow protestations of faith hurled after empty promises of vengeance - and every gesture, every pose, vanishing into the thin unpopulated air. We ransomed our dignity to the clouds, and the uncomprehending birds listened. Don't you see?! We're actors - we're the opposite of people!

I've never written an original piece for film; all the original things I've done are for the stage.

My scripts are possibly too talkative.